The Relationship between Cultural Power and Education in Light of the Development of Education in Turkiye over the Last Two Decades.

• Author: Ozer, Mahmut
• Position: COMMENTARY

Introduction

Mass education emerged globally in the early 19th century and expanded in the aftermath of World War II to include higher education. Many nations, starting with the United States and the Western European countries, made it easier for all their citizens to access education, while implementing new, large-scale projects to improve their society's overall level of education. By the 1970s, mass education had spread to higher education in those countries; the enrollment rate in primary education neared 100 percent, and the process of universalization enabled more than half of the entire population to access higher education.

The driving force behind this expansion was the realization that human capital is the most powerful, long-term resource available to any given country. Increasing the average number of years of schooling per member of society not only contributes to their employability and increases their adult skills, it empowers them to make greater contributions to their nation's development. Accordingly, investing in human capital makes a significant impact on economic development as well as social peace and welfare.

Since the Republic of Turkiye's foundation, increasing the schooling rate has been among the stated priorities of almost every government. Significant progress has been made on that front, especially at the level of primary education. It is important to acknowledge, however, that Turkiye lagged behind the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, in particular, by the early 2000s in terms of massification and universalization in education. Whereas many OECD countries had largely completed the process of universalization by the 1950s and thus began to prioritize the quality of education, Turkiye did not initiate universalization until much later. Accordingly, various large-scale projects have taken place since 2002 to promote massification in education and ensure that Turkiye could compete with other OECD states in that area.

From 2002-2022, Turkiye made significant progress with regard to almost all educational indicators. Due to the long-standing problems impeding access to education at all levels except primary, the country initially concentrated on improving access to education. Accordingly, additional schools and classrooms were built, prioritizing those provinces and regions where the schooling rate was relatively low. At that point, Turkiye dared to tackle the root causes of the problem, making investments nationwide rather than only in specific parts of the country. Consequently, those provinces and regions that had once suffered from schooling-related problems ended up on par with the rest. Massification in education thus occurred homogenously across the nation.

Improving access to education in a large-scale education system, as in the case of Turkiye, requires significant investment. That is why the Turkish governments made a massive investment to increase the number of schools and classrooms to oversee that transformation. It was also important for those investments to be managed in such a way that they would promote balanced growth. The investments Turkiye made at the time resulted in significant improvements; the government prioritized disadvantaged areas to bridge, rather than deepen the existing gaps. Those investments began to yield results within a rather short amount of time. (1) Accordingly, there was a notable increase in the schooling rate for all levels, from pre-school to higher education. For example, the preschool enrollment rate for 5-year-old children increased from approximately 11 percent in the 2000s to 93% percent today. During the same period, the schooling rate at the middle school level soared from 44 percent to 90 percent. (2)

It is possible to better appreciate the positive impact of those...