Discrimination

52 Discrimination in Turkey’s Education System
mathematics, science and Turkish are used to calculate
the score they will be awarded for the RCaM
questions. While high scores are usually achieved
on the RCaM questions, basing their score for these
questions on their average from other subjects
has put students who are exempt from the RCaM
course at a disadvantage. A representative of the
Association of Protestant Churches stated that due
to the disadvantages caused for students, calculating
the scores in this way was not an adequate
solution to the problem. 119 Furthermore, problems
are still experienced in practice and in 2015, for
example, it was discovered that the TEOG exam
scores of 371 students who were exempt from the
compulsory RCaM course had been calculated as
though they had sat the RCaM section of the exam
and scored zero. 120 On appeal, the scores were recalculated
but there is no guarantee that a similar
error in calculation will not be repeated in the future.
One interviewed expert said that in order to
avoid being put at a disadvantage, Christians who
had the right to exemption also tried to follow the
RCaM lessons. 121
Students studying at minority schools are also
at a disadvantage due to the inclusion of questions
related to the RCaM course in the TEOG exam, but
the situation of these students is slightly different.
Students studying at minority schools take
a course entitled Religious Culture and Morals,
but in this course, in place of Islam, Christianity
is taught in Armenian and Greek schools, and Judaism
in the Jewish school. Since the TEOG exam
includes questions related to the RCaM course, a
subject mainly about Islam, students at minority
schools are exempt from the RCaM questions and
their score for the RCaM questions is calculated, as
described above, according to their average score
from the mathematics, science and Turkish sections
of the exam.
119 Association of Protestant Churches, op. cit.
120 Gamze Kolcu, ‘371 Öğrencinin Puanı Yeniden
Hesaplanacak’, Hürriyet, 30 June 2015, http://
www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/29415888.asp
121 Interview with an administrator of an Armenian
school, Istanbul, 19 June 2015.
The situation for Jewish and Greek schools
changed last year. The MoNE first asked the Jewish
school to prepare the syllabus for the RCaM
course taught in the school, and then stated that
in the TEOG exam the school’s students would be
asked questions that had been prepared according
to this approved syllabus. When representatives of
the Jewish school stated that questions related to
their faith could only be prepared by members of
that faith, they were informed that a number of
general questions about Judaism would be asked.
In the TEOG exams held during the 2014-15 academic
year, students studying at the Jewish school
were asked questions about the RCaM programme
that they had studied, thus ensuring that these
students were no longer at a disadvantage.
A different policy was implemented for students
at Greek schools. As a result of meetings
with the MoNE, the students of two Greek high
schools 122 were given exemption from the TEOG
exam because over 95 per cent of students studying
at Greek secondary schools continue their education
in Greek high schools. Thanks to this exemption,
students graduating from Greek secondary
schools are able to continue their education
at Greek high schools, as was the case before the
introduction of the TEOG exam. 123 Here it is important
to note that there remains a disadvantage for
Greek students who do not plan to continue their
education at Greek high schools, and also for the
students at one Greek high school whose students
sit the TEOG exam. 124 The headteacher of a Greek
high school said that including questions related
to Christianity in the TEOG exams would not solve
the problem because the RCaM course at their
schools was taught in Greek and some terms were
122 Fener Greek High School and Zoğrafyon High
School.
123 It is reported that a similar practice exists in
Turkish schools in Western Thrace and that the
MoNE therefore applied the reciprocity principle
to give Greek schools exemption from the
placement exam. Telephone interview with an
administrator of a Greek school, 20 June 2015.
124 In the 2014-15 academic year, two graduates from
the Zapyon High School sat the TEOG exam.