Democratization seen as cure for troubled education system

Many in Turkish society believe that unless the state’s official Kemalist ideology is eliminated from schools, it will remain impossible for Turkey to become a truly democratic nation of creative and free-thinking citizens.

As part of its attempts to democratize Turkish education, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has introduced several education initiatives in its nine years in power. These include adding references to and a definition of Alevism in religion textbooks for all grades from the fourth grade through the end of high school.

The head of Turkey’s Higher Education Board (YÖK), Yusuf Ziya Özcan, recently said the current system for calculating the university admission examination scores of graduates of vocational high schools will be completely abolished in 2012, enabling vocational school graduates to compete with other students on equal ground. The highly controversial coefficient system was introduced during the Feb. 28, 1997 “postmodern” coup period, in an attempt to keep students from religious imam-hatip schools, classified as vocational schools, out of universities.

However, the vast majority of educators in Turkey have recently been speaking out more than ever, saying that no matter what changes are made, nothing much can be done in terms of democratization, unless the education system is privatized and problematic anti-democratic practices are removed from the system. For example, the military-style commands and mass recital of the Turkish pledge of allegiance (Andımız) in Turkish primary schools are seen by some as inappropriate. Before students begin the day, they gather in the school yard and recite the Turkish pledge of allegiance altogether after receiving a military drill-style command from their teachers; the whole scenario is more reminiscent of a military barracks than a school. Students in Turkish high schools have often complained about the compulsory national security course, a subject that is part of the official curriculum and is often taught by military officers, saying they don’t see the use of this class, which aims to teach values such as patriotism.

In an interview with Today’s Zaman, Bugün daily columnist Gülay Göktürk said she believes that the education system should be privatized, the Unification of Education (Tevhid-i Tedrisat) code must be removed from the Constitution and the official curriculum should not be compulsory in all schools. Göktürk said having different curriculums in schools would allow for real competition in education, and parents would have multiple options to choose from. Göktürk points out that Kemalist ideology is deeply ingrained in Turkish education, due to the Tevhid-i Tedrisat code in the Constitution. “When demands for reform are raised some people in the society think that the whole country will be filled with religious schools only. They exhibit the same paranoia that they had when the AK Party first came into power, thinking that the country would become a religious state.”

Author Rasim Özdenören, who has produced a series of radio programs on the topic of democratization for Burç FM, told Sunday’s Zaman that despite all the positive democratic steps taken by the government, the education system will not be democratized until the Tevhid-i Tedrisat code is removed from the Constitution. Özdenören points out that all economic sectors in Turkey are open to foreign investment, except for education. Once education is opened to foreign investment by the abolishment of the Tevhid-i Tedrisat code, which prevents schools from having independent curricula, the education sector will be of higher quality and will be open to foreign investment, Özdenören said, adding that “all the foreign schools [now open] in Turkey were opened in the Ottoman era.”

The headscarf ban in Turkish schools has long been a matter of contention. The wearing of the headscarf was banned on university campuses shortly after the 1997 coup, on the grounds that it posed a threat to the secular order. This ban was recently lifted. However, some government institutions are still legally prohibited from hiring headscarved women. Headscarf-wearing women are also denied employment in most private companies, although there is no law prohibiting the wearing of headscarves in private businesses. The ban on the headscarf is mostly attributed to a desire to maintain the “secular identity” of Turkey, although according to a poll conducted by the Ankara-based MetroPOLL Strategic and Social Research Center, nearly 70 percent of Turkish women wear the headscarf.

In an interview with Today’s Zaman, pharmacist Nebahat Sarı, who was banned from graduating from her university at the time of the coup, stated that her university did not allow her to register for classes because she submitted a photograph of herself wearing a headscarf to the registry office of the university with the paperwork. Sarı told Sunday’s Zaman that she was in her final year of a pharmacy courses at Eskişerhir’s Anadolu University in 1998. When Sarı returned to the university in September to register for her classes for the term, she saw notices all around the university stating that students were expected to comply with the dress code, which prohibited wearing a headscarf. Sarı was able to submit her class registration form, and paid her tuition fees to the university. But then she received a letter at home stating that her registration at the university was being terminated because she had not registered for classes. “Those days were like a nightmare. It was a very stressful time for me and I wound up losing 10 kilograms,” said Sarı.

When the government introduced certain education-related amendments in 2008, Sarı had the opportunity to complete her degree by taking the missed classes. She eventually graduated in 2010, became a pharmacist and opened her own pharmacy in 2011. She questions the difficulties that she and thousands of other headscarved women faced after the “postmodern” coup, saying, “Why have our careers been hindered in this way?”

Sarı’s sister was studying at the Osmangazi University at the time, and she was chosen as student of the year in her subject area in her second year of studies. However, she also faced difficulties due to the headscarf issue. “My sister was able to register for her classes too, but she was given zero grades in her exams and counted as absent, which was followed by a letter home stating that her registration at the university had been terminated,” Sarı said.

Despite the recent emphasis on technological improvements in education, such as providing tablet PCs to students in Turkey, what the majority of the public is really expecting to see is an education system freed from the state’s ideological control, by the removal of the Tevhid-i Tedrisat code, which would allow parents control over what ideologies are being taught to their children.