1. COMPULSORY EDUCATION

Education is generally described as the process of change in behaviors of individuals. Every child, youngster and adult must have the chance to benefit from education opportunities designed to meet his/her education needs.

Compulsory education is considered as the most crucial part of formal education. It requires that the individual shall receive education for a certain period of time during certain intervals. Compulsory education is a legal expression under which the individual would receive education in the mentioned education institutions until a certain age.

In Basic Primary Education and Education Act No: 222 “primary education is described as the compulsory basic education for every citizen.” The “basic education” concept used in National Education Act No: 1739 has been changed as “primary education” and in Article 42 of Constitution of Republic of Turkey obliges minimum and basic level of education for everyone by stating “primary education is compulsory for all citizens regardless of sex and free of charge at public schools.

Various steps have been taken in our country for developments and innovations in education. Although these are significant developments in history of education, Law No: 4306 published in the Official Gazette dated 18 August 1997, numbered 23084 is the greatest of all these steps. This law changed the structure and operation of primary education institutions such as;

Towards these ends, the period of compulsory education has been extended to eight years as of 1997-1998 Academic Year, through Act No: 4306. The Project for Catching Up The Age Year 2000 was put into effect in the days that followed approval of Act No: 4306, aiming to establish a contemporary system of education.

The Project sets forth the objectives stated below:

The policies to be implemented for achieving those objectives have been determined as follows:

Planning has been undertaken, in accordance with the objectives and policies that have been determined and in view of the rate of increase in the number of students, facilities, equipment, bussing system, regional primary boarding schools, boarding primary schools and education materials.

In the year 2000-2001, excluding the students in open primary education, there has been an increase of 373.953 in the number of students when compared with the previous year.

Although this increase was 4% throughout Turkey, the figures were as follows for some other locations;

1.2. CURRICULUM FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION

The courses and terms of these courses in primary education schools, education programs, course books were re-arranged together with the eight-year primary education.

1.2.1 Courses

In 1998-1999 academic year;

were began to be implemented. The courses named “National History” and “National Geography” were joined under the name “Social Sciences” .

Table 6. The Courses in Primary Education Curriculum and Duration

Table 7. Elective Courses in Primary Education Curriculum

Table 6 and 7 Source: Primary Education Program

1.2.2. Course Programs

In 1998-1999 academic year;

In 1999-2000 academic year;

In 2000-2001 academic year;

Such course programs were begun to be implemented.

Furthermore, in 2000-2001 academic year;

1.2. 3. Teaching Materials

The teaching materials that shall be used in 1999-2000 academic year was prepared by taking the students as focus, based on Atatürk’s ideology in terms of quality and quantity, so as to provide contemporary, scientific knowledge and experience, away from memorizing and promoting active learning for the students.

These materials comprise of textbooks for students, workbooks for students and guidebooks for teachers.

“Effective Teaching and Learning Hand Book for Teachers at Primary Education” was prepared in 12 modules in accordance with the protocol signed between Faculty of Education - Süleyman Demirel University in Burdur and MONE.

The prepared teaching materials were introduced to 3.000 primary education inspectors who have participated the “active learning and utilization of teaching materials seminar” and 40.000 brochures were distributed to schools for introducing the textbooks to all teachers and directors at primary education schools.

Furthermore, the training set of “Teachers’ Handbook for Effective Teaching and Learning at Primary Education” was planned to be distributed in two to every primary education school in Turkey with the consent of the World Bank, the technical aspects were prepared for distribution and its printing is at the stage of bidding.

The following books that could guide the teachers in education-training methods, implementation and evaluation such as;

were distributed free of charge to all primary education schools, primary education inspectors, teacher hostels, and libraries of provincial and district national education directorates.

For the children from low-income families;

Textbooks were distributed free of charge in 1999-2000 academic year totaling up to 8 trillion 697 billion TL and in 2000-2001 academic year 5 trillion TL.

Table 8. Textbooks, Teacher Guide Books and Student Work Books at Primary Education

Source: MONE General Directorate of Primary Education

©2002 Republic Of Turkey
Ministry Of National Education
All Rights Reserved.