Education Ministry decides to increase school days

ANKARA

In a bid to keep the flow of education constant and parallel to the practices undertaken in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries (OECD), the Education Ministry has launched an effort to work on extending school terms in Türkiye.

A typical school year runs through a period of 90 days - with the first and second semester terms of 90 days each. The school term is calculated by subtracting public holidays, national and religious holidays and weekend holidays. But this period may get shorter considering weather conditions.

The ministry will not make any changes regarding the mid-term vacations. November and April midterms will continue, and holiday schedules will not be affected, but students will go to school for more days than before.

The regulation aims to increase the school period from 180 to 200 days. According to the previously announced calendar, the 2024-2025 academic year will start on Sep. 9, 2024, with the ministry planning to extend school days by shortening the summer vacation.

The summer vacation in Türkiye lasted 13 weeks, but with the introduction of the mid-term break, the ministry cut the summer holidays to 11 weeks.

The ministry is also studying the education practices of the OECD countries. In countries such as the Netherlands, Japan and South Korea, the number of days students attend school in a year is 200 or more. In Sweden, students take 10 weeks of summer vacation, while in the U.K. they take six weeks.