Education & Health

The public school system, for which the state provides over 90% of the funding, has reportedly experienced steady improvement with a higher national budget and GDP percentage dedicated to education. However, the past decade has seen the private sector play a significantly larger role in education, particularly at the university and secondary levels, and increasingly among K-12 schools as well. The nation’s young population and under-supply of universities has driven private investment in the sector, and seen a dramatic increase in the number of institutions of higher learning. The government’s recent changes to public K-12 schooling – the so called 4+4+4 system passed into law in mid-May – have put the sector in the spotlight and anticipate more changes in quality and provision of education in coming years. This chapter has interviews with Zekeriya Yıldırım, the Chairman of the Darüşşafaka Foundation; and Dr Recep Akdağ, the Minister of Health.