School education in Turkey lasts 12 years and consists of three stages of 4 years:
• primary school (ilk okul);
• secondary school (orta okul)
• high school – lyceum (lise).
In addition, there is a preparatory class - anasınıf, in which children go at the age of 5.5 years and begin by learning writing, counting and other basics from scratch. Primary and secondary schools, as a rule, are always located geographically in the same place.
The senior level - the lyceum - is a separate educational institution. After graduating from high school, children must take final exams, based on the results of which they have the opportunity to choose a lyceum. It can be:
• general education lyceum (anadolu lisesi),
• with an emphasis on scientific disciplines (fen lisesi),
• professional (meslek lisesi, analogue of our colleges),
• religious (imam hatip).
There are both public and private schools in Turkey. Let us briefly describe the main differences between them.
Public schools, unlike private ones, are each assigned to a specific area, and children are enrolled in a specific public school in their area of residence. These schools have a single program. Private schools, as a rule, implement their own specially designed programs and corresponding textbooks, and here, from the first grade, foreign languages are intensively studied, there are a large number of elective classes, sports clubs, music, chess and much more at no additional cost, so you can choose directions, focusing on the interests of the child.
All schools in Turkey have school service buses that pick up and deliver your child directly from home to school and back. Therefore, when choosing housing, you should not worry about the proximity of the school. The cost of training depends on the class and the very concept of the educational institution. School uniform, books and school bus are usually paid separately. When paying in advance, discounts are usually provided. And also in some schools there is a system of rewarding talented children, supported by the state: based on the results of entrance tests, several places are allocated with large discounts on annual education from 20 to 100%.
To register your child for school, you need a Turkish residence permit. It is also worth taking care in advance and obtaining a Certificate in your home country about the number of classes the child has completed, if in Turkey it will not be issued from the first grade, and apostille a notarized copy of the child’s Birth Certificate, the translation of which will be required for admission, among other documents.
