Turkey’s curriculum: Continue westernising and press on with economic reform – but take the people with you

Continue westernising and press on with economic reform - but take the people with you

TURKEY has been brave enough to take part in the International Student Assessment Programme (PISA), allowing its education system to be compared with those of other OECD countries. The main finding of a recent PISA study was that provision within the country differs wildly. Some schools and some students perform very well by any standard - and they are not all in Istanbul or Ankara. But too much Turkish education is of poor quality.

One teacher who recently moved schools, from a town in Anatolia to a village 15km away, was shocked by the difference in standards. The poorer schools still put too much emphasis on memorising facts and learning by rote, and not enough on understanding ideas. Minority Rights Group International, a non-governmental organisation, also points out that “derogatory statements remain in school textbooks about different minorities.” Kazim Genc, the Alevi human-rights lawyer, says there are “hurtful words about Alevis in many schoolbooks, encyclopedias and magazines”.

Some of the reasons for the low educational standards are socio-economic. Children in poor families can be important breadwinners. If there are lots of children, the older daughters often have to take care of their younger siblings, which leads to high rates of absenteeism. This is a particular problem in the east of the country, where it is still not unusual for village families to have ten or 15 children. The daughters of such families have a poor chance of getting a decent education.

But their prospects are improving. In 1997 the government increased the period of compulsory education from five years to eight, and today just over half of all schoolchildren go on to a further three or four years of secondary education. In 2005, for the first time in the history of the Turkish republic, education received a bigger share of the national budget than the armed forces.

Backed by a $250m World Bank programme, the government is trying to improve attendance. Mothers of poor families receive a monthly grant of $15-20 for each child, depending on its attendance record. At the end of 2004, in a remarkable example of affirmative action, the government agreed to give larger grants for girls than for boys.

But the biggest improvements have been in higher education. The number of universities has grown rapidly and now totals 78. Several high-quality private institutions have been set up, including a university sponsored by the Sabanci Group which its boss, the unmarried Ms Sabanci, calls her big baby. Most of the teaching in these institutions is in English. They now give the country's brightest undergraduates a real alternative to going abroad.

One of the best is Bilkent University, founded in 1984 on a vast site just outside Ankara and backed by a large family-owned conglomerate that built, among other things, Istanbul's huge new international airport. Students in Turkey sit a nationwide university entrance exam and are ranked on their performance. Of the top 100 students in the rankings last year, 34 chose to go to Bilkent. Increasingly, the main reason why students go abroad for their first degrees is that they have failed to get into a decent Turkish university.

A good supply of high-quality university education is something new for Turkey. The country's recent leaders were almost all educated abroad - an expensive luxury available only to a small elite. When she became prime minister, Ms Ciller spoke better (American) English than she did Turkish. So, arguably, did Mr Dervis when he was parachuted in to rescue the nation from financial disaster in 2001. Mr Ozal did his best to lure back bright Turks who had stayed away after studying abroad. Many of the country's top businessmen and government officials in the 1990s were American-educated. They brought with them western attitudes and expectations, but had little in common with Turks outside the sophisticated enclaves of Istanbul and Ankara.

The present government has a chance to bridge that divide. It is trusted by Kurds and others in the east who have felt left out of “the republic” and its political life almost since Ataturk's time. It is trying hard to improve its human-rights record - still too slowly for some, but more genuinely than its predecessor. At the same time it is continuing with the pro-EU policy of its western-oriented predecessors and sticking to their economic policy as laid down by the IMF. Moreover, it is determined to end Turkey's isolation and play a full part in the complicated politics of the region.

A once-in-a-lifetime chance

The results so far are almost too good to be true. Mr Gul has described it as a “silent revolution”, a phrase that is being echoed everywhere. It may be too soon to rejoice: the government has been in power for nearly two-and-a-half years, and has not yet reassured the Kemalist doubters, many of whom still suspect that it has a long-term fundamentalist agenda. But every day brings more converts to its cause.

Much depends on Mr Erdogan himself. The Turkish political system is designed to channel power to the top. Diplomats and journalists in Ankara work away at trying to understand him, but find him hard to read. He is a different breed of Turkish leader, lacking the Byzantine political skills that served many of his predecessors so well. But then with his parliamentary majority he has little need for them.

He could well be in this fortunate position for at least another seven years - the rest of this electoral term and, assuming he is re-elected, the next one. Turks, it has been said, are good on a forced march. Mr Erdogan may be about to take them on a journey to Europe the like of which they have not seen since the days of Ataturk.

Outside all Turkish schools today are emblazoned the words: Ne Mutlu Turkum Diyene (happy is the man who can say “I am a Turk”). One day, perhaps, all over Turkey there will be signs saying, Ne Mutlu Avrupaliyim Diyene (happy is the man who can say “I am a European”). Ataturk would certainly approve.