A Gender Review in Education, Turkey 2003 (7)

Education Processes

Three schoolfriends meet in the crowded rush of a primary school opening day

No comprehensive school mapping exercise has been completed so far.
Photograph by Sinem Akay © UNICEF Turkey 2003

Teachers and Principals

**Table 1:** Teaching staff in primary and secondary education
Level	Total	Female	Male	Gender Gap
Primary School Teachers¹	390,109	171,916	218,193	44,215
Primary School Principals²	16,454	477	15,977	15,500
Secondary School Teachers³	148,563	59,387	89,176	30,200
Secondary School Principals⁴	3,099	n/a	n/a	n/a
Teacher-training Programmes⁵	225,490	n/a	n/a	n/a

¹ MONE Research, Planning and Coordination Committee, 2003.

² There are an additional 14,340 primary schools in Turkey where deputy principles or teachers carry out administrative duties. MONE Under-secretariat, 2003.

³ ibidem

⁴ ibidem

⁵ This figure represents the average annual intake to governmental teacher-training programmes. MONE Research, Planning and Coordination Committee, p253, 2001.

Note: Disaggregated figures for primary and secondary school principals with training in school management and administration are not available. However, training in school management and administration is a prerequisite of becoming a school principal today. Consequently quite a number of school principals have been trained in recent years. For example, 10,216 primary and secondary school principals successfully completed management development courses conducted by MONE of which 313 were women and 9,903 were men -- a gender gap of 9,590.
MONE Under-secretariat, 2003.

Qualifications

What are the qualifications required for teaching at primary level?

In order to teach at primary school level, a BA or BS degree at least is required from appropriate departments of universities in addition to the regular civil service requirements.

What is the percentage of teachers qualified to teach at primary level?

Although figures for those qualified to teach at primary level are not available, it should be noted that in some Eastern Anatolian provinces, male university graduates work as teachers in lieu of obligatory military service and also in some schools in rural areas, where numbers of teachers are insufficient, local people can teach on a part time basis. Both groups together constitute about 1% of the national total.
MONE Undersecretariat, 2003

Do modules for gender sensitivity in the classroom and beyond exist in teacher training programmes?

No -- however, between 1995 and 2002 the University of Ankara Faculty of Educational Sciences offered an elective course on Gender. Some of the teachers may have attended as a part of their pre-service education.

Have any school management programmes for gender sensitivity been introduced?

No.

Community and School Processes

Are parent/teacher, community/school committees widely in existence?

Yes -- each school must have a Parent Teacher Association and in some schools there are also Associations of School Care founded by parents, teachers and other interested parties which deal mostly with financial support for the students.

Has gender training been undertaken at the community level for any of the groups?

Yes -- courses with gender sensitivity components are conducted at multipurpose community centres in the South-Eastern Anatolian Region and at the community centres of the Social Services and Child Protection Agency (SHÇEK) with the collaboration of various NGOs. There are also seminars on gender issues for women’s institutions, political parties, labour unions and professional associations organised by Women’s Research Centres at the universities.
Directorate General for Status and Problems of Women, 2003

Have child-seeking policies such as school mapping been introduced at the national, community or school level?

MONE has initiated school mapping. However, no comprehensive school mapping exercise has been completed so far.

UNICEF and partnerships

What non-formal approaches are currently used by UNICEF and partners?

UNICEF Turkey together with ILO, UNDP and UNFPA initiated a project in 5 provinces -- Erzurum, Van (Muradiye), Yozgat, Ankara and Bolu (Düzce) -- setting up eight Open Primary Learning Centres for Girls and ten support units in primary schools for girls attending open primary education. The centres were equipped with computers, overhead projectors, video players and television sets for the girls to enhance their learning. So far more than 1,000 girls have been enrolled.

The Family and Child Training programme (FACT) for parents with children under 6 years of age focuses on early childhood care and development. Until now 16,000 mothers have attended with their children. The programme is conducted by UNICEF, the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), SHÇEK and the Trade Unions.
EFA, National Plan of Action, 2002.

How many children in the 6-14 age group benefit from non-formal approaches?

208,472⁶ -- This covers practical girls’ vocational schools and institutes; Vocational courses opened by code number 3308; Public training courses; Qur’an Courses; Private vocational courses; Private Colleges, & c.

⁶ The figure represents the number of places taken on courses -- a child may be counted more than once if he or she attends more than one course. 1998-1999 Academic Year, SIS, 2003.

Continue to the eighth part of A Gender Review in Education, Turkey 2003, The Learning Environment.

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