250,000 students dropped out of private school

Rising private school prices change educational preferences

Special Parents stated that schools have increased their expenses for food, stationery and general expenses by up to 300 percent in addition to school fees, and stated that they had to take their children out of the private school. While parents claimed they were required to receive these services in violation of the regulation, private schools said they could not increase their tuition rates in line with rising costs.

20,000 TEACHERS REMAIN

Zafer Öztürk, president of the Association of Private Schools of Turkey (TÖZOK), stated that the economic crisis in Turkey also hit private schools: “Before the pandemic, we had 170,000 teachers, it decreased to 150,000 teachers. We had 1.5 million students, now it’s down to 1,250,000,” he said. For the first time this year, the Ministry of National Education announced that tuition fees for private schools could go beyond the formula determined by the regulations, and that tuition increases could be up to 65 percent. While this intervention is expected to provide some relief to private school parents, parents, schools that are unable to increase their enrollment rates by more than 65 percent; He faced exorbitant increases for additional “mandatory” services such as food, stationery, clothing, and additional expenses. According to BBC Turkish’s Fundanur Öztürk news, Turkish Private Schools Association (TÖZOK) president Zafer Öztürk said: “If the Ministry of National Education had not intervened, tuition fees would have risen by 105 percent this year,” and said the walking restriction had negatively affected private schools.

300 PERCENT OF RENT

Veli Hasan, on the other hand, explained that the meal fee was increased from 10,000 TL to 32,000 TL with an increase of 300 percent, the book fee was increased from 8,000 TL to 20,000 TL, and he had to pay 10 thousand 500 TL “general expenses”. Veli Hasan said that in order to keep his son, who will take high school exams this year, in a private school, he needs to pick up his first grade daughter from school.

Expensive and mandatory additional services

A parent named Ayşe, who said that the cost of meals in a private school in Istanbul increased from 11,000 TL to 30,000 TL, and the cost of books from 11,000 TL to 25,000 TL, noted that 9,000 were requested TL. under the name of “additional expenses”. When parents do not want to receive these services making use of their rights in the regulation, they said: “Your school registration is not renewed.”

Parents can’t afford the increases

Explaining that they could not cope with the walks, the families said they had to take their children out of the private school they had attended for years. A mother named Ayşe said, “There were 23 students in our class, 6 parents already handed their children over to the public school. When parents oppose these illegal practices by private schools, they also fear bullying their children at school.”

Teachers’ salaries are at the minimum wage level

Private school teachers often did not receive their share of these raises, and the salaries of many were kept at the minimum wage level. Arzu Başer, a member of the Executive Board of the Private Sector Teachers’ Union, said: “Except for a few private schools, teachers’ salaries are around the minimum wage and slightly higher. In fact, most teacher salaries are below minimum wage with the increase in minimum wage. Berna, a 43-year-old teacher, said that she attends classes for 32 hours a week on a salary of 6,000 TL at a private school in Ankara with a fee of 140,000 TL.