I finally reached another international contact. Dr. Volkan
Sahin he is Co-Chair ACEI International Outreach Committees as well as, Hacettepe
University School of Education, Elementary Education Department, Early Childhood Education Program.
In corresponding with Dr. Sahin I learned that Turkey is Its centralized education system.
The Turkish Ministry of Education oversees and governs all educational
policies, applications and activities throughout the entire country.
Public, private or organizational, all schools must follow a centralized
curriculum created and administered by the Ministry of National Education.
The following is Dr. Shain’s response to this week’s
discussion.
The biggest
educational issue Turkey is dealing right know is the new education
system called 4+4+4. It is part of an ongoing education reform and the
particular part that causing a lot of debate is the change in elementary school
starting age.
You see, in the old system the elementary grade starting age was age 6 (72 months). With this new system any child who is older than 60 months (age 5) can be enrolled to the first grade. This change brings a lot of issues regarding equity and excellence. (I can’t understand how you can put a five year old in the first grade, just shows how different countries do things differently).
First and foremost, some critics say (and I agree) that enrolling younger children to first grade (particularly alongside with their older peers) will create a lot of problems since the school readiness is a real question with this younger population. To me this is also an equity issue since this academic year two different age groups will compete for their teachers' attention and resources. This reckless implementation will surely increase the classrooms sizes to, even beyond, the limit. This also brings us to the excellence issue. With the increasing numbers of students and changing student population the teachers will have a heck of a time in their classrooms. It will be really hard to keep up with the needs of two different age groups and the quality of education will certainly affected by these changes.
http://www.okuloncesi.hacettepe.edu.tr/index_en.html
You see, in the old system the elementary grade starting age was age 6 (72 months). With this new system any child who is older than 60 months (age 5) can be enrolled to the first grade. This change brings a lot of issues regarding equity and excellence. (I can’t understand how you can put a five year old in the first grade, just shows how different countries do things differently).
First and foremost, some critics say (and I agree) that enrolling younger children to first grade (particularly alongside with their older peers) will create a lot of problems since the school readiness is a real question with this younger population. To me this is also an equity issue since this academic year two different age groups will compete for their teachers' attention and resources. This reckless implementation will surely increase the classrooms sizes to, even beyond, the limit. This also brings us to the excellence issue. With the increasing numbers of students and changing student population the teachers will have a heck of a time in their classrooms. It will be really hard to keep up with the needs of two different age groups and the quality of education will certainly affected by these changes.
http://www.okuloncesi.hacettepe.edu.tr/index_en.html
My other contact Lynda Matthews has been out of reach this week. I am sure she will respond and when she does I will add to this post.
I wonder if they have a student to teacher ratio, like we do in the early childhood program most classes have no more than 15 - 18 students. You are right this is a challenge for the teacher. It is almost like teaching a split level class. I look forward to learning more about Turkey's educational system.
ReplyDeleteI love that you were able to get a contactg to respond. I agree the mix age group can be very challenging. At the DOD school I teach at they do mixed aged groups like 1st and 2nd grade together and although I have never taught it I would think it would be overwhelming. I know in my CDC we had to fight to keep the 3 years olds seperate from the 4to 5 year old age group because of the overwhelming needs of the different ages. I cannot imagine a child who is just turning 5 interacting with children turing almost 7 the mentaility is not the same and neither is the development. Great insight on Turkey!
ReplyDeleteCatherine,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you are continuing to make contact with people internationally (I must be doing something wrong). I think it would be a challenge not only for the teachers but the children, as well to have such a wide age range in their classrooms. Sometimes younger children get intimidated by older children whom know or can do more than them. It looks like all educational systems throughout deal with challenges in attempting to reform education for young children, the problem is it is not always the best choice. Great Post!