While Turkish society has debated the teaching of the Kurdish language in schools in the last decade, English-language teaching has always been seen as a problematic area of the Turkish education system. According to TEPAV's “Turkey's English-Language Deficiency” report, Turkey has taken 43rd place out of 44 countries in English-language proficiency, falling behind countries such as Chile, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Turkey needs to work harder to solve this issue, especially when its geopolitical position and the fact that it is the world's 16th-largest economy are taken into account.
English-language teaching in state schools does not go beyond a few memorized sentences and words, the report says, and it makes a connection between the English language and economic growth, saying that Turkey has to improve its English-language teaching system in order to keep its economic growth at a high level in the long-term. According to the report, a common knowledge of English is not among the fruits of economic development but is instead a step toward a good economy.
The report states that English is more commonly known in many other countries that have weaker economies than Turkey, and it adds that countries in the top 25 allocate for education a minimum of $32,000 for every child aged 6 to 15 in state schools. However, this amount is as low as $12,708 per student in Turkey.
According to the report, the main reason Turkey has fallen behind in English-language learning is that compulsory lessons begin at age 10. However, in other countries where English-language proficiency is high, students start to learn English when they first start school. In addition, only basic English skills are tested on high-school entry exams, and students do not go through a year where they only learn English before starting their studies in state universities. Until 2005, all state university students had to go through a year-long English-language learning course before they started their degree, and this is still the case in a few private universities.
Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark -- where students learn English from ages 6 to 15 -- take the top spot in English-language proficiency, and these countries spend around $80,000 per student on education. However, the ranking of Switzerland, which lies 11th among the 44 countries and spends $104,352 per student, shows that a high amount of money spent on education does not necessarily improve the general proficiency in English; Poland is 10th on the list and spends $39,964 per student on education.
