Turkish school registration halted after case filed over exam question

ISTANBUL

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Registrations for the coming Turkish school year have ground to a halt after officials postponed the announcement of the results of nationwide high school entrance exams due to a lawsuit issued over a question.

In a written statement, the Education Ministry announced on June 24 that the results of the Transition from Primary to Secondary Education (TEOG) exams, which affects 1,273,000 students, would not be announced on its announced date, June 24, as they were waiting for the court’s decision about an English-language question in the exam filed by one of the parents of a student who sat the exam. 

“The placement base scores (YEP) of [TEOG] were set to be made public on June 24, 2015, but as a court ruling in the case filed against one question is expected, the announcement of the scores will be made upon the administrative court’s decision,” read the ministry’s statement. 

A parent of a student who entered the TEOG filed a lawsuit on May 11 to the Ankara 12th Administrative Court against the 20th question on TEOG’s English-language part, claiming it was wrong, daily Hürriyet reported. 

The court rejected the file on the grounds that necessary documents were missing, but the parent gathered the documents and applied to the court a second time on June 3. A notification about the lawsuit reached the ministry on June 10. 

An expert report that was prepared by three academics stated that the question should be removed.

However, once it was discovered that one of the expert’s children had also entered the exam and answered the question wrong, a new set of experts was appointed to prepare the expert report. The experts are expected to deliver their report to the court either on June 25 or June 26. 

Students in grade eight enter two exams, one in December and the other in April as part of the TEOG, receiving an overall score that constitutes the YEP, which is subsequently used to list their preferences in entering a high school. The score earned from the TEOG is used to enter both state and private schools. 

The postponement of the exam results has especially affected private high schools as students who wish to attend private schools will submit their school choices according to the score their TEOG exam score before being placed. Subsequently, students who wish to go to a state school will submit their list with their school preferences. 

Due to the placement system, private schools, which had opened their registration process on June 24, have faced problems during the day. 

The Association of the Union of Private Schools announced later on June 24 that the registration process for the private schools had stopped and that if the scores were announced by June 26, the registration process would be conducted between June 27 and July 5. If this does not happen, a new schedule for the registration process will be announced later, the association said in a written statement.