Türki̇ye Country Report: Report on Analysis of Out-Of-School Children in the National Population [EN/TR] – Türkiye

Executive Summary

The Global Initiative on Out‑of‑School Children (OOSC), launched in 2010 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS), is a key component of the global monitoring on educational participation. The OOSC Initiative (OOSCI) supports the interrelated tasks of developing profiles of out‑of‑school children, linking quantitative and qualitative data with various barriers, and identifying effective policies to address the OOSC problem (UNICEF‑UIS, 2015). The initiative has country, regional and global dimensions and aims to achieve action‑oriented research and capacity development‑related results (UNICEF, Formative Evaluation of the OOSCI, 2018).

Almost all Turkish children complete primary and (lower) secondary education levels, and children who are not in school are concentrated in the upper‑secondary (“high school”) age range (Ministry of National Education [MoNE], 2019c). However, across all levels of schooling in Türkiye, vulnerable groups are not enrolled in school or are not attending regularly (UNICEF, 2012, 2019a). These include children with disabilities (CwD), children who are engaged in child labour, child, early and forced marriage, and in contact with the law, among other groups. Furthermore, the intense migration of approximately four million Syrian (and other) refugees since 2011, including just over 1.2 million school‑aged children (5–18 years), has affected the OOSC situation in Türkiye for all children (UNICEF, 2019a).

These dual challenges Türkiye is facing related to out‑of‑school children – addressing problems related to child protection while simultaneously dealing with the intense migration of Syrian children UTP – call for different research and policy responses. Accordingly, these two issues are dealt with separately in different OOSC reports. The present report focuses on out‑of‑school children and children at risk of leaving school early (referred to as OOSC) among the national population in Türkiye.

The overall objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of OOSC among the national population in Türkiye based on a quantitative and qualitative (mixed methods) research framework. The study focuses on barriers hindering children’s access to and completion of compulsory education in Türkiye, which includes a large number of often interrelated factors such as poverty; child labour; child, early and forced marriage; bullying; quality of and access to schools; and cultural norms and language. Cross‑cutting issues like gender are also addressed.

The added value of this study is that it provides the most detailed, comprehensive overview of the OOSC phenomenon among the national population of children in Türkiye, emphasizing the 2018–2021 period with references to earlier years to show trends. The quantitative analysis takes full advantage of the considerable data that are available, including the 2018 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the 2020 Ministry of National Education (MoNE) data, while the qualitative analysis is based in part on an extensive data collection that was conducted in November 2020 and May 2021, and which focuses on the underlying reasons that explain OOSC according to the children, their parents, and a range of key informant interviews (KIIs). The level of detail in the mixed‑methods analysis makes it possible to present trends in OOSC outcomes and barriers over time, develop more detailed profiles of out‑of‑school children and the barriers they face, and identify any new and emerging barriers. An additional contribution of this report is to highlight the barriers that appear to be the most consequential. Their identification is especially critical for policy work since the State’s counterparts (and other stakeholders) will need to prioritize their actions and resources.

In addition to documenting the current situation with OOSC in the national population of Türkiye and the underlying causes of different categories of OOSC, a core objective of the study is to provide policy guidance. This report provides an integrated analysis that assesses the applicability of current policies based on the main findings from the mixed‑methods data analysis, which in turn forms the basis for formulating an updated set of policy recommendations.