Efficiency of Education: The Case in Eastern and South-Eastern Turkey

The efficiency of education in achieving the nationalgoals in East and Southeast Turkey (E&SE) has longbeen a subject of debate. Both regions are similar toeach other and different from the other regions interms of economy, culture, ethnic origin, andlanguages spoken. Separatist terrorist activities,economic decline, unemployment, and geographicaldispersion are some aspects of the problems in bothregions (Ergil, 1995; Özdag, 1995; RP, 1994; SHP,1990). The lack of teachers, especially in ruralschools, limited budgets, inequality in schooling andthe failure of schools in E&SE Anatolia wereidentified as the educational problems by manyauthorities and published in the report of the14th National Education Council in 1993 (NEC,1993). In order to draw a conclusion concerning theefficiency of education in the E&SE, all sources ofinformation was studied and all related informationwas gathered and analyzed. This study is about theefficiency of education in the E&E and proposed thatilliteracy is significantly the highest in bothregions, female student population is significantlylower, and students are significantly less successfulin nationwide general proficiency examinations (OSSand OYS) compared to all the other regions. Theresults indicate inequality of educationalopportunity mainly originated from the negligence ofethnic, cultural and lingual existence of the peoplein both regions. The solution seems to lie in either the application or the type of democracy.