GENERAL INFORMATION
 

Project title
 

INCREASING PRIMARY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE RATE OF CHILDREN

Priority area
 

Education

Beneficiary

Ministry of National Education

Co-Beneficiary
 

Duration

Duration: 23 Months

Start: 21/10/2013

End: 20/10/2015

EU contribution (Euro)

€ 3,200,000

PROJECT SUMMARY

Brief description of the project and main objectives
 

Recent education policies in Turkey focused on increasing access to primary education. It is acknowledged that significant progress has been made in this area since 1997. Now the focus is on ensuring that all children attend and complete primary school. Although this focus is reflected and prioritized in the national strategies and plans of the Ministry of National Education (MoNE), there is a need to put this commitment into implementation and to enhance institutional capacity.

According to the “e-school” database of the MoNE, the actual drop-out rate in Turkey in primary education was 1.14% for boys and 1.50% for girls in the 2009-2010 school year. According to research and a needs analysis conducted by the Primary School General Directorate in 2009, one of the risk factors causing non-attendance and drop-out of children is that “the language which is spoken at home amongst the family members is not Turkish”. Since the current Turkish training programme does not address Turkish language teaching, there is a need to select and train students experiencing Turkish language problems.

There is a need for further intensive research regarding the different risk factors for school children (including the children of families traveling to other provinces in order to find temporary agricultural jobs, immigrants and other disadvantageous circumstances resulting in non-attendance and drop-outs) and to develop efficient intervention measures based on this research. Furthermore, a monitoring system with special indicators and detailed personal information regarding the risk factors for the children must be developed.
 

Location

Achievements / expected outputs

Result 1: Measures identified and policy recommendations developed related to drop-outs and non- attendance by making a complete analysis of the situation.

Result 2: Revised regulations for providing the legal basis for the newly developed interventions and for a Turkish language teaching programme.

Result 3: Adequate intervention measures identified and taken on drop-outs and non-attendance for different types of risk groups.

Result 4: Capacity of MoNE personnel and awareness of all related groups on preventing drop-outs and non-attendance increased.