Preface
Few other countries have been able to expand education and raise performance at the same pace as Türkiye has over the past two decades. The data presented in this report – from successive cycles of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement)Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) – shed light on the extent of the performance improvements that have been achieved in Türkiye in recent decades.
This report was developed at the request of the Ministry of National Education in Türkiye and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to analyse the country’s data from international assessments. It informs readers about how students in the country perform across different domains, at different stages in their schooling and in association with different aspects of their background, such as their socio-economic status and gender, and the school that they attend.
The data show that Türkiye is making important progress towards supporting all students to achieve good outcomes. They indicate that not only has average student performance in the country increased across levels of schooling but that it has been driven by an increase in the share of students who achieve the basic knowledge and competencies that they need for life and work. In particular, it is those students who come from the most disadvantaged backgrounds in Türkiye who have made some of the greatest progress in recent decades. They also convey that, as students move through school, some differences in performance associated with their background, such as socio-economic status or the language that they predominantly speak at home, decline.
While the data show many ways in which the education system is raising performance equitably, they also highlight areas that Türkiye may want to explore in the future so that more children and young people receive all of the support that they need to achieve their potential. For example, there appears to be scope in how resources are distributed across schools to help compensate for some of the initial disadvantages that some students experience.
We hope this report will be help Türkiye develop a more fine-grained understanding of its education system’s strengths and challenges. The findings are discussed at a policy level in the related policy perspective – Policy Options for Stronger, More Equitable Outcomes in Türkiye – that sets out options for Türkiye to consider in order to promote greater equity in the future.
Director for Education and Skills