Supplementary Education in Turkey: Recent Developments and Future Prospects

Abstract

Structured Abstract:Purpose: This paper aims to provide the recent developments on the supplementary education system in Turkey. The national examinations for advancing to higher levels of schooling are believed to fuel the demand for Supplementary Education Centers (SEC). Further, we aim to understand the distribution of the SECs and of the secondary schools across the provinces of Turkey in order to evaluate the spacial equity considerations. Design/Methodology/Approach: The evolution of the SECs and of the secondary schools over time are described and compared. The provincial distribution of the SECs, secondary schools and the high school age population are compared. The characteristics of these distributions are evaluated to inform the about spatial equity issues. The distribution of high school age population that attend secondary schools and the distribution of the secondary school students that attend SECs across the provinces are compared. Findings: The evidence points out to significant provincial variations in various characteristics of SECs and the secondary schools. The distribution of the SECs is more unequal than that of the secondary schools. The provinces located mostly in the east and south east of the country have lower quality SECs and secondary schools. Further, the SEC participation among the secondary school students and the secondary school participation among the relevant age group are lower in some of the provinces indicating major disadvantages. Originality/Value: The review of the most recent developments about the SECs, examination and comparison of provincial distributions of the SECs and of the secondary schools are novelties in this paper. * This paper is prepared at the kind request of Janice Aurini, Scott Davies and Julian Dierkes.

Factors Predicting Turkish and Korean Students’ Science and Mathematics Achievement in TIMSS 2011

“…Both Korea and Turkey share some common features of eastern culture. For instance, both countries have strong family structure, high educational pressure, and a centralized education system (Paik, 2004;Tansel, 2013). In both countries, public expenditure on education is 4% of the gross domestic product ).…”

“…Completing a bachelor's degree is highly valued in Turkish society and increases the chance of getting a job (Tansel, 2013). High stakes tests in the Turkish education system cause competition among students and prompt parents to provide private tutoring (e.g., private instructor at home, cram school) to their children to help them improve their achievement scores.…”

Additional education of children as an innovative resource for the development of regional educational potential

“…Unlike formal education, pupils' achievements in nonformal education cannot be converted; however, studies conducted by authors from different countries indicate that pupils who actively participate in extracurricular activities are more successful and selfsufficient in studying at a university, they are more easily involved in teamwork, and show leadership qualities [3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

Spatial Models for Identifying Factors in Student Academic Achievement

“…It is becoming an important part of student achievement in competitive education systems. In the literature, various types of supplementary education have been found with different effects (see Tansel & Bircan 2006;Maylor et al, 2010;Bray, 2013;Tansel, 2013;Wang & Li, 2018). Supplementary education is common in countries that have nationwide examinations for access to higher levels of schooling (Tansel, 2013).…”