education. During the academic calendar year 2017-2018, 8.3% of the educational services were provided by private sector. Such contribution increased by 13% compared to the previous period. Turkey implements mobility in education under bilateral agreements and cooperation with international organisations. Under the EU Education and Youth Programmes, more than 27,000 projects and more than 427,000 participants benefited from Erasmus programmes in 2004-2016. Erasmus+ Programme being implemented in 2014-2020 period offers aids for school education, higher education, vocational education, adult education, and youth as well as grants for projects on sports. Students with scholarships are sent abroad for master’s and doctorate degrees in return for compulsory service with the aim of supplying skilled human resource to universities and public institutions under the International Postgraduate Scholarship Programme. Under Mevlana Exchange Programme, students and instructors are benefiting from the domestic and foreign higher educational institutions exchange programme. Turkey provides international scholarships to student to gain from and contribute to global knowledge, establish networks and build mutual relationships. The program received a total of approximately 10,000 applications in 2012 when it was launched and exceeded 100,000 applications in 2018. About 4000 students annually were awarded with scholarship, while the number of applicant countries also almost doubled in the same period of time. Regarding equal opportunities for education; our legislation guarantees the right to education of all individuals regardless of gender, language, race, disability or religion and without privileging any individual or class. The net schooling rate in secondary education level which was 39.2% for girls and 48.5% for boys in the academic year of 2000-2001 increased to 83.4% for girls and 83.8% for boys in the 2017- 2018 academic year. Private sector and NGOs’ projects and campaigns significantly contributed to this progress while also supported the extention of the compulsory education’s duration. Efforts are underway to strengthen human, physical infrastructure adapted for students with disabilities. Reading and writing devices enable the translation of written documents into Braille alphabet are now in practice to enable visually impaired people to access to the educational materials. As of 2018, 40% of the schools (1,200 in number) were adapted for students with disabilities; it is aimed to increase this number to 2,000 by 2023. Free transport and lunch services are offered to students with special needs to ensure their educational continuity. Special educational programs delivered in 22 potential employment fields in the vocational schools ensures that the graduated student gain a profession which allows them an easy integrations into the working community. Since 2003, course books have been distributed free of charge at the primary and secondary education levels. Additionally, approximately 365,000 students were provided with accommodation at 3,053 boarding facilities in 2017-2018. It is aimed to expand the boarding facilities across the country for all children in need is expanded to reduce transportation needs to schools and to minimize students’ dropout living under unfavourable conditions. Transportation services are provided for students living in remoted areas to ease their access to primary and secondary education. 1.4 million students benefited from the said practice during the 2017-2018 academic year. Satellite-based internet connections in 15,103 schools and 432,288 blackboards were provided to ensure access technology for all students. In addition, satellite-based internet connections are provided to 2,600 schools to enable particularly the vulnerable segments to access technology. In line with the principle of equal opportunities for all, several projects are implemented by public, private sector and NGOs to ensure compulsory education age group benefits from free and quality primary and secondary education and support individuals who drop out of education early to continue their education. The Inclusive Early Childhood Education Project for Children with Disabilities was launched in 2017 to support children with disabilities in participating in social life with children who do not have disabilities, by means of quality and inclusive education from early childhood till the end of 1st grade. Efforts are made to enable children of school age who are under temporary protection in our country to benefit from education services. The schooling rate of Syrian children of 66 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
school age which was 37% in February 2016 increased to 60% in December 2016. As of April 2019, approximately 545,000 Syrian students were receiving quality education with equal opportunities as their Turkish peers from preschool till the 12th grade. Under a specifically designed programme, education delivered in their native language in cities intensively and collectively habited by Syrians and in TACs.25 HELLO HOPE SDG Targets 4.5 - 4.6 - 4.7 -10.2 Executing Entity Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. Start & End Dates 2015-Ongoing The project Hello Hope aims to enable those whose mother tongue is Arabic including particularly Syrians in Turkey to learn basic Turkish. The language course content was developed in cooperation with the Turkish Red Crescent. Hello Hope is a mobile application that helps to learn Turkish, establish contact, access news in Arabic and location information of important places nearby. A tab of Useful Information is also included with contribution from the Turkish Red Crescent on questions and answers on life in Turkey, access to public services, education and healthcare. With contributions from Daily Sabah Arabic newspaper, the application also allows access to Arabic news of the recent 2 days. Hello Hope technology centre was commissioned at K.Maras Temporary Accommodation Centre in cooperation with AFAD and Prodea, where children were also trained on technology. Hello Hope digital application has been downloaded by approximately 1 million people to date, and is being used actively by approximately 30,000 people weekly. The project gives Syrian children and adults opportunities to learn Turkish and adapt to life in Turkey. For purposes of vocational education and lifelong learning, focus is placed on improving the education-employment-production relation and increasing employability of individuals of various educational backgrounds and age groups by improving their knowledge, skills and competences. In this framework, practices are developed for vocational education and lifelong learning. Increasing the quality of vocational education to raise qualified labour force that is demanded by businesses is one of the main priorities of Education Vision 2023. In the academic year of 2017-2018, 35% of students in secondary education studied in vocational and technical secondary educational institutions. Of those students, 43.8% were girls and 56.2% were boys. The number of teachers provided educational support was 145,511. In the academic year of 2018-2019, educational activities continue with 134,870 teachers and 1,538,019 students in 3,753 vocational and technical secondary education schools. Skill-building training and internships for students in real work environment is key for qualified vocational education. State incentive financially compensate businesses for payment of students’ internships. It is also ensured that vocational and technical secondary education students are insured against work accidents and occupational diseases during their internships. The project 300 Vocational High Schools for 300 OIZs was launched in 2017 to develop human resources needed in line with science, technology and industry policies. The project’s aim is to establish minimum 300 technical high schools in 300 OIZs and educate qualified sub-professionals through theoretical and practical training programmes applied in those technical high schools. Lifelong learning programmes and campaigns are implemented to enable individuals to make up their educational shortages, adapt to scientific, technological, social, and cultural developments, and acquire necessary knowledge and skills for purposes of 25 See Chapter 4.4. 67 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
in-service and professional development. As of 2017, 34% of women and 14.6% of men of age 15-24 have neither education nor employment in Turkey. For the purposes of lifelong learning, 7 million people participated in approximately 340,000 courses opened, advanced technical schools for girls opened and PECs provided by MoNE in 2017. Of those courses, 57% is for general purposes while 43% is for vocational and technical purposes. 59% of participants were women. Concerning lifelong education, local administrations which closely follow the needs of citizens undertake extensive and effective activities. Easily accessible training programmes are organised by all segments of the society particularly including the disadvantaged. In 2017, approximately 1.8 million people with 56.5% women participated in 24,822 courses that was opened by municipalities. 2019 was declared as the Year of Volunteering and the Volunteering Strategy was launched to contribute to personal, vocational and social development of youth to enable them to become self-confident, entrepreneurial, active and participatory citizens in all aspects of social life. Vocational education programmes are implemented for arrested, convicted ones, people released under probations and former convicts referred by the protection committees in the penal institutions. More than 4,000 students in 25 countries received training on vocational knowledge and new technologies with the support of 272 teachers in 20 different vocations as part of international collaboration. Industries digital transformation should go hand by hand with the improved educational program to properly respond and align the labor market needs. Additionally, special focus should be given to basic sciences including science and technology, engineering and mathematics while also assessing the potential competitive sectors, which will ensure the decrease of unemployment rate. NEXT STEPS: The following policies will be implemented in the upcoming years to achieve SDG 4: • Improving the career guidance system to make vocational counselling more effective, • Cooperating more effectively with the business world to create vocational education programmes in secondary education, • Strengthening the interaction between vocational education and the labour market, develop collaboration between schools and businesses, • Diversifying the early childhood education service with alternative and flexible programmes with the aim to include disadvantaged groups, especially rural and low-population settlements, • Promoting education approaches such as “STEM+A” across all education levels to strengthen the research sprit, innovation, and creativity, • Adapting higher education and vocational education programmes so as to enhance digital technologies-related skills and innovation competences of the labour force and strengthening entrepreneurial approaches, • Providing free access up to a certain monthly quota to the Educational Cyber Network (EBA) to enable all citizens to benefit free of charge from digital educational content, • Providing satellite-based internet connections to 5,100 schools to enable particularly the vulnerable segments to access technology, • Organising awareness-raising and skill-building training regarding literacies which are among the 21st century skills such as digital, finance, health, ecology and social media for all segments of the society and business world. 68 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
5.5. SDG 5. ACHIEVE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER ALL WOMEN AND GIRLS
In Turkey, empowering women in its all
dimensions including economic, social
and cultural aspects and ensuring their
active contribution to development is
considered an essential component
of our human-centred development
approach.
POLICIES
In addition to NDPs and strategic plans of relevant public
institutions, key policy documents on SDG 5 include
Women’s Empowerment Strategy and its Action Plan for
empowering all women and girls, National Action Plan on
Combating Violence against Women, National Action Plan
for the Empowerment of Rural Women. Further, measures
for empowering women were also incorporated to the policy
documents on employment, information society, healthcare
and entrepreneurship.
The key components of the policy framework in line with SDG 5
are as follows:
• Achieving 100% schooling and graduation rates by
eliminating the differences between girls and boys varying
by provinces and regions,
• Increasing employment rates of women and ensuring
that they are employed in safe and good jobs with equal
wages for work of equal value and without any form of
discrimination,
• Harmonising work and domestic life and developing
accessible, widespread and high-quality care service
infrastructure to increase women’s participation in economic
life,
• Promoting women’s entrepreneurship,
• Increasing digital literacy rates of women and girls,
• Increasing the ratio of women represented in politics and
decision-making mechanisms,
• Addressing and preventing violence in its all dimensions
and increasing the institutional capacity of units providing
services in this field,
• Implementing deterring penal sanctions to prevent early
and forced marriages and mainstreaming family education
services and increasing their efficiency,
• Raising awareness of the media on their responsibility
regarding violence.
LEGISLATION
Comprehensive regulations were enacted in The Constitution,
Turkish Criminal Code, Turkish Civil Code, Labour Law, and
Law on Family Protection and Preventing Violence Against
Women in the context of ensuring gender equality on marriage
and family life, work life, preventing abuse and violence
against women, early and forced marriages, empowering
women and their acquisition of property and inheritance.
IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS AND IMPROVEMENT AREAS
SDG 5 is assessed on four focus areas: i. Elimination of
all forms of discrimination against women; ii. Prevention
of violence and abuse against women; iii. Promotion of
opportunities for women to participate in social, political and
economic spheres; and iv. Reproductive health and rights.
In the context of eliminating all forms of discrimination
against women substantial progress was made in terms of
eliminating gender inequality in the last two decades in Turkey.
In 2009, the Equal Opportunities Commission was established
in TGNA to improve equal opportunities for women and men
at the level of legal implementation and ensure efficient
parliamentary supervision.
In Turkey, the principle of gender equality was strengthened
with the amendments made in the Constitution in 2001, 2004
and 2010. These amendments covered the provisions for
ensuring equal rights for women and men, the government’s
obligation to ensure this equality and family union based on
equality between the spouses.
Other regulations and particularly amendments in the Turkish
Civil Code safeguard gender equality without any gender
discrimination in terms of women’s property rights and their
access to economic resources.
The amendments of the Turkish Civil Code stipulated a regime
of participation in acquired properties, where each spouse
has equal rights on each property which is acquired during
the marriage instead of the property division regime which
means, upon divorce, each spouse would receive the property
registered under her/his sole name.
69
TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
“Strong Ground towards Common Goals”