Mother of all problems

On Sunday hundreds of thousands of young Turks sat in examination halls for several hours in a bid to qualify for university education. The previous Saturday, several hundred thousand younger Turks sweated at a country-wide examination in hope of getting admitted to either the “Science” or “Anatolian” high schools, believed to be offering a higher level of education. In order to win a place at a university, or at one of either the Science or Anatolian high schools, parents spend lofty amounts on certain private courses, and starting as early as the age of 10 many Turkish kids spend years in between their schools and those courses and prepare for those two or three-hour long “life determining” examinations.

It is the constitutional duty of the state to provide education opportunities to all Turkish children without discrimination. The constitution as well underlines an equality of all citizens. The reality unfortunately does not correspond with what’s written in the constitution.

Firstly, Turkey is such a "social state" and state schools are offering such high level of education that parents have to spend lofty amounts on private courses to get their kids into Science or Anatolian high schools and later to universities. Secondly, if even a better secondary education depends on how much parents can spend on private courses and if most Turks are waging an uphill battle for survival and cannot afford such courses, how can this country have "equal opportunity in education" as dictated by its constitution?

The lack of adequate funds allocated to education or the absence of a proper education policy and long-term planning on the one hand and a very young population, more than the combined population of many small members of the European Union, waiting for an education opportunity at the doors of Turkish universities is definitely a serious problem. Or, the existence of millions of children and the need to provide them at least a proper primary education is no easy challenge for any government. Education woes are indeed the mother of all problems.

I have no intention of ignoring pressing health problems, and neither can I turn a blind eye to this country's terrible image problem abroad. Still, with a proper education policy and through achieving a higher standard at Turkish schools from the compulsory primary schools to universities and post graduate education, Turkey can achieve a mental reform, a must for transforming this society into one with a heightened awareness of its rights and responsibilities, and pave the way to a massive transformation campaign that would take this country with great speed to the level of "primary league nations" in all spheres of life. It is often said that democracy can flourish in countries with per capita income of at least 10,000 thousand dollars. If that thesis was correct many of Turkey’s eastern neighbors would perhaps be great democracies today. However, democracy is a cultural phenomenon. It cannot be introduced just with laws. It cannot be bought. But, every society can be educated in democracy.

Including this writer, many people might have very strong complaints with the level of democracy in Turkey. Yet, it has to be underlined that besides the introduction of the secularism principle immediately after the creation of the modern republic from the ashes of the Sick Man of Europe, the Ottoman Empire, it was thanks to the great emphasis the founding fathers attached to education that this country has succeeded to nourish a culture of democracy, though with many deficiencies that need to be eradicated.

This country of course has financial constraints. However, if and when this country changes its preferences and priorities in favor of education and for example when the Education Ministry budget and allocations for education become larger than the defense budget or at least more than the budget slice that goes to the Religious Affairs Directorate, then it will become easier to achieve bigger democratic strides in far shorter period of time than otherwise it will take for this country. And, neither the Sarkozys nor Merkels of that day’s EU will have objection to the admission of a democratic Turkey that has eradicated the "mother of all problems".