Creating-entrepreneurial-mindset

Enhancing the Global Classroom for Contemporary Globalism2009). Therefore, their respective educational systems are highlighted for the purposesof this chapter.2. Turkish Education SystemEducation in Turkey is a state-supervised system which has its roots in the AtatürkReforms following the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923). The Ministry ofNational Education governs pre-school, primary school, and secondary school education,while the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) plans, coordinates, and superviseshigher education (Turkish Fulbright Commission, 2012). Compulsory education beginsat the age of six and continues to age 14 regardless of gender. It is free-of-charge instate schools. The Primary Education Diploma (Ilköğretim Diploması) is awarded uponsuccessful completion of the 8-year basic education program.Secondary education has been a duration of four years since 2006, and is categorizedinto General, Vocational, and Technical High Schools. The so-called “AnatolianHigh Schools” are unique in that they provide regular class lessons in a foreign language—namely,English, French, or German—and are also divided into Fine Arts andReligious (Imam-Hatip) entities. Vocational High Schools focus on a certain professionsuch as tourism or industry, while Technical High Schools focus on science education(Turkish Fulbright Commission, 2012). Since 2010, high school graduates sitfor the Transition to Higher Education Examination (YGS) in April; successful YGScandidates can then take a second-round examination in June—the UndergraduatePlacement Examination (LYS). Those students who pass only the YGS exam can enter2-year (associate) degree programs, while successful candidates of the LYS exam mayenter traditional 4-year undergraduate degree (Lisans) programs. Students are placed inprograms according to their scores on these two examinations.There is currently much debate in Turkey regarding the general quality of Turkishprimary and secondary schools to prepare students adequately for the university entranceexaminations, with particular emphasis being placed on how students are forcedinto programs and institutions based solely on test scores. However, since the 167Turkish universities presently have a total seating capacity of only 450,000 with over1.6 million candidates each year (and rising due to national demographics), the currentsystem is simply not arranged to include other student evaluation techniques such aspersonal interviews which are common in other countries such as the USA (HarvardUniversity, 2012). However, there are changes being explored such as the use of ComputerizedAdaptive Testing (Kalender, 2012). As a result, Turkey has thousands of“cram schools” (dershane) that prepare students solely for university and related examinationssuch as exist in Brazil (cursinhos), Japan (juku), and Korea (hagwon).Some other core statistics regarding Turkish education include the following (TurkeyEducation: Statistical Profile, 2014):10