Turkey has lowest pre-primary school enrollment: Report

ISTANBUL

Turkey has the lowest pre-primary school enrollment among the 36 countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said a recent report published by the Turkish Educational Association’s think tank institution (TEDMEM). The institution based its results on OECD’s “Education at a Glance 2019” report, comparing Turkey’s data with those of other OECD countries.

“Turkey has made progress in pre-primary school enrollment rate for children aged 3-5 years, and over the period of 2005-2017, this figure has approximately tripled. Despite this progress made in pre-school education, the enrollment rate is still very behind the OECD average. Among the OECD countries, Turkey has the lowest pre-schooling enrollment rate for children aged 3-5,” said the TEDMEM report.

As of 2017, some 40 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds were enrolled in preschool programs in Turkey, whereas this figure was 13 percent in 2005 and 27 percent in 2010. For the OECD average, this rate was 76 percent, 82 percent and 87 percent, respectively for 2005, 2010 and 2017, the report said.

The annual expenditure made for education of 3- to 5-year-olds per child is $5,568 in Turkey, compared with $8,605 for the OECD average, said the report.

The report also included enrollment rates of children under the age of 3 in early childhood education care.

The report said that on average across OECD countries in 2017, around one-third of children under the age of 3 were enrolled in early childhood education care (either fulltime or part-time), whereas in Turkey, this proportion is 0.3 percent – corresponding to three children out of 1,000 – putting the country at the bottom of the list again. This proportion is 50 percent or over in Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Luxembourg, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway, according to the report.

The report also included many other data measuring the current state of education. Accordingly, one of the data that was looked at was the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds who are neither in education or training nor employed as of 2018. In Turkey, this proportion is 30 percent, the highest rate among all OECD countries, the report said. On average across OECD countries, 14 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds are neither employed nor in education or training programs, according to the report.

When this proportion is analyzed based on gender, a larger share of women – compared with men – are inactive, both in Turkey and OECD countries. The proportion of 18- to 24-year-old females who are neither employed nor in education or trainings is 43 percent in Turkey, while this figure is 18 percent for males. The country marks the higher gender gap with 25 percent difference among other OECD countries, according to the report.