Discrimination

Discrimination
Based on Colour, Ethnic Origin, Language, Religion and Belief
in Turkey’s Education System
EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The facts and findings laid out in the previous
sections of this report reveal that although positive
steps have occasionally been taken to remove inequality
and discrimination from the Turkish education
system, a paradigm shift is needed to bring
about a fundamental solution to the problem and
effectively ensure equality. Such a paradigm shift
includes a number of elements, as outlined below:
• In Turkey, a country built as a nation-state,
the equality of all ethnic, linguistic and religious
groups has still not been fully adopted in either
the official or the civil sphere. Rather than bringing
about fundamental changes, the steps that have
been taken to protect the rights of groups adhering
to different identities have only met their demands
for rights to a limited degree, yet these groups are
expected to be satisfied with such small steps.
Taking measures that consist of offering elective
language courses when there are such strong and
widespread demands for mother tongue education,
and expecting members of the Alevi community
not to object to compulsory religious courses
that give a range of false information about the
Alevi religion, can be seen as the results of such
an approach. Another outcome of this approach
is the fact that the curriculum does not include
groups other than Turks or, in cases where it does,
refers to them in negative ways. In order to bring
about a fundamental solution to these problems
in the education system, the priority must be to
develop an approach that sees all groups as equal
and that responds to demands for rights based on
such an understanding of equality.
• The education system is still used as a vehicle
to instil a single political-social ideology that
is dominant in the state or government and to encourage
young people to adopt a particular way
of thought and lifestyle. The ‘national’ education
system, which for decades aimed to create young
Turkish nationalists, has in recent years become
a vehicle for raising young religious Turkish nationalists.
In order to resolve the many problems
in the education system that such an approach
causes, the aim of education should be purged of
ideological references, and the protection of children’s
best interests and the right to education in
line with international standards should be considered
its fundamental goal.
• As in many areas, policies related to the education
system are made on a centralized level in
a non-participatory way. Local administrations
have no authority regarding the development and
implementation of education policies. General
policies on education are developed hurriedly and
without the participation of representatives of the
various ethnic, language and religious communities,
or of NGOs and academic institutions working
in the field of the right to education, thus putting
those with different identities living in the country
at a disadvantage. An example of this is the violation
of the freedom of religion and conscience
and of the right to education of individuals with
different identities through the inclusion of questions
related to the compulsory RCaM course in
TEOG placement exams and through the increase
in the number of imam hatip religious schools.
The fact that the principle of participation is not
observed while developing policies that concern
communities of different identities presents an
obstacle to finding fundamental solutions to the
existing problems, and creates difficulties regarding
the implementation of steps that are being taken.
The swift introduction into the curriculum of
elective language courses and the problems that
later arose are an example of the kind of problems
caused by measures implemented without a participatory
approach.