The new school year in Turkey started with a new curriculum for some classes. There the word “morality" occurs 59 times, writes “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAC). President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long declared the goal of educating “pious youth". The new program is another step in this direction.
"The most politicized education reform"
As the German publication points out, this program has not been subjected to analysis, is not aimed at children and represents the most politicized education reform since Erdogan came to power. The FAC quoted education expert Swat Kardash as saying his biggest concern was that the government was pursuing a political agenda rather than seeking answers to the country's most pressing education problems. “Our children urgently need more cognitive ability, and the curriculum is overloaded with moral principles, religious content and socio-emotional competencies." The expert also believes that the concept was developed without any knowledge of modern pedagogy.
FAC notes that over the past ten years, however, Turkey's PISA scores have improved slightly, and investments have been made in infrastructure. But the latest comparative study shows that Turkey is far below the average of the 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. In mathematics, for example, 39 percent of Turkish students are in the group with the worst results, only 5 percent were among the top performers.
Erdogan continues the transformation of the state
To the German publication, Kardash, who participated in Erdogan's first education reform in 2003, said that back then, in connection with Turkey's ambitions to become part of the EU, the goals were more critical thinking, more diversity and education with emphasis on human rights. All that is long gone. Today, even the name of the reform is indicative: Educational model for the century of Turkey. With the idea of a Turkish century, Erdogan continues the transformation of the state, FAC explains.
The new curriculum greatly reduces the possibilities for teachers to apply it according to the profile of their class and their school, Kardash pointed out to the German publication. And the ministry is planning a new wave of inspections. “They will check the children's notebooks and the teachers' plans." In Turkey, it was like this before - before the sector was somewhat democratized in 2003.
Education has been highly politicized since the foundation of the republic, FAC recalls. Kemal Atatürk sees it as an instrument for the accelerated modernization of the country and for giving the society a secular character. Until 2014, headscarves were still banned in most schools. This laid the foundations for the polarization of Turkish society, which has reverberations to this day. But Erdogan is changing the direction in which education is moving. Since 2012, religious schools (where Erdoğan also studied) can also be attended by younger students. And in 2017, a major curriculum reform was adopted - incompatible with the values of the founder of the republic, Atatürk, according to secular Turks. Its importance in history and social science textbooks is no longer as strongly emphasized as before - more attention is paid to the “Turkish-Islamic civilization". Evolutionary theory has been removed from biology instruction, and religious instruction has been expanded and dogmatized.
Confidently on the path of Islamization
Because of all this, more and more parents from the secular middle class are sending their children to private schools, which meanwhile make up a fifth of all. But due to the current difficult economic situation in the country, fewer and fewer families can afford private education. Dissatisfaction with the quality of education fills not only the supporters of the opposition, says FAC. Poll of the Public Opinion Research Institute “Konda" indicates that 68 percent of respondents are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. There is one more thing - shortcomings in the education system are often cited in polls as one of the main reasons for migration.
The new curriculum consistently follows the path of Islamization, the German publication emphasizes. Erdogan rejects the criticism of the opposition and teachers' unions close to it, saying: “We will not allow anyone to stand between the children of this country and religious values".