Nearly 400K college students dropped out in Turkey in 3 years
SERBAY MANSUROĞLU
serbaymansur@birgun.net / @serbaymansur
Latest data released by Turkey’s Ministry of National Education in response to a request of information submitted by independent MP Aylin Nazlıaka has revealed a striking fact. According to ministry’s data, rate of dropouts in higher education continued to grow as much as in secondary and tertiary education. Within the past 3 years, nearly 400 thousand college students dropped out, the report indicated.
While MP Nazlıaka had requested information on students who dropped out or froze their studies between the years of 2011-2016 due to economic difficulties, the Ministry shared data on students who dropped out between the years 2015-2017. Ministry’s data had no specific information as to how many of these students left school due to financial difficulties.
Data shared by the Ministry included the following information:
In 2015, 164 college students were kicked out of school on a disciplinary penalty while 129970 dropped out themselves. 32880 others in college left school with other reasons, the report of the Ministry said.
The respective data for the year 2016 was 312 on disciplinary penalty; 152263 with own consent; and 33730 with other reasons, while it was 135; 21972; and, 13942 respectively for the year 2017.
In total, 386507 were reported to have dropped out from college between the years 2015-2017.
The number of students who later returned to their studies within these years was not included in the report. This and the fact that the reason of dropout was not recorded also showed the Ministry’s lack of concern and planning to create solutions for the problem.
In a statement delivered about the issue, MP Nazlıaka said the biggest problem faced by college students was financial difficulties and problems with access to accommodation, although the ministry stayed away from specifying the reasons behind the dropouts.
Nazlıaka called on the government officials to step up to address the issue in order to ‘immediately ensure a solution to the problem’…