Reminders | 25 years of uninterrupted market-oriented and sectarian education under the AKP

Politics Collective

Education is the most fundamental line targeted in the construction of a regime. Since the day it came to power, the AKP has continuously pursued two fundamental areas in education as a necessity for its existence and political survival: marketisation and Islamisation. Since the early 2000s, when it declared itself the ‘co-chair of the Greater Middle East Project,’ the AKP has systematically implemented whatever imperialism and capitalism required. Religion, through the discourse and policies of political Islam, has always been on stage as an instrument of consent for exploitation and inequality.

The AKP has been the most successful actor in the history of right-wing political parties in fulfilling the role assigned to it by the 1980 coup plotters and imperialists in shaping the Turkey they sought to create.

From the 4+4+4 system to the imam hatip schools, from projects such as MESEM and ÇEDES, which exploit children for reactionary and capitalist interests, to the constant changes in the education system to ‘sectoralise’ education, to vocational training programmes developed to meet the demand for cheap labour rather than skilled workers, to the increase in university quotas and numbers while simultaneously reducing appointments, trapping teachers in the precarious exploitation of the private sector, the most radical transformations in education in the history of the republic took place during the AKP era.

The main issue of recent days is the debate over mandatory education and the gradual elimination of free, public education alongside the simultaneous abolition of mixed education. With the vocational and technical education policy document, four new school models, and the opening of secondary school sections in vocational high schools, preparations are being made to remove 60-70% of children from school and turn them into child labourers for capital, and to convert all schools into MESEMs.

Additionally, among the reactionary policies designed under the guise of the “Year of the Family,” there are new projects aimed at increasing the number of child brides by making it easier to exclude girls from education. The most important arena where the so-called ‘difficulty of establishing a family’ analysis is being imposed as a necessity and women are being further restricted from social life by disregarding its economic foundations is, once again, education.

Since the process began on 12 September, the most critical steps have been taken in education to hand over each new generation to sects and business owners and to destroy the social fabric of the people. Despite this, young people in universities and high schools continue to stand in opposition to the palace regime, imagining a country they have never known, and remain the core of resistance in every period.

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AKP ERA

During the AKP era, mandatory religious education was introduced in the 4th grade. Under the guise of elective courses, different religious courses became mandatory in middle school and high school. With the curriculum changes that began in 2004, all content related to secular and scientific education was removed from all courses. The content of all subjects was religiously oriented. Prayer rooms were made mandatory in all educational institutions from pre-school onwards. After primary school, children were effectively cut off from school under the guise of religious education.

The age for starting Quran courses was lowered to 4 with the introduction of 4-6 year old Quran courses. Quran courses are being opened everywhere for all age groups in schools, mosques, community-based institutions run by municipalities, and Sufi orders, in line with the latest Shura Council decision.

Since the AKP came to power, the number of imam hatip schools has increased rapidly. Between 2002 and 2007 alone, the number of students in İHL (religious high schools) increased by 80% (71,000 in 2002 to 127,000 in 2007). After the 4+4+4 education system was introduced in 2012, a middle school section was also opened in imam hatip schools. A change in the dress code regulation was introduced, allows children to cover their hair from the age of 9.

The number of Imam Hatip secondary schools in Turkey increased from 1,597 in the 2014-2015 academic year to 3,432 in 2022-2023. In Istanbul, the number of Imam Hatip secondary schools increased from 197 to 357. In the 2014-2015 academic year, there were 1,017 imam hatip high schools in Turkey, while this number rose to 1,714 in 2022-2023.

As a result of changes in the examination system and school enrolment policy, students who could not enrol in academic high schools due to insufficient school and quota capacity were compulsorily placed in imam hatip schools.

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EDUCATION IN THE COLLABORATION OF CAPITAL, PALACE AND SECRET SOCIETY

In his speech at the Istanbul Stock Exchange on 21 July 2003, during his first years in power, Erdoğan said, "We want the state to gradually withdraw from education and leave this task entirely to the private sector. It should remain predominantly in the private sector. Let them take over this task. I believe they will succeed”.

In 2015, dozens of statements and policies were made, including ’Turkey should be run like a joint-stock company," and as a result, education was gradually commercialised.

The 2000s were the years when the traces of the 24 January decisions of the 1980 coup plotters were most strongly implemented.

Dozens of new private universities were opened under the name of foundation universities. Municipalities allocated public land, which belonged to the people, to foundation universities without charging any fees. Funds continued to be transferred to foundation universities from the general budget. The funds transferred to private universities were spent from the budget consisting of collected taxes.

This story has a long history; for example, in the second half of the 1990s, the AKP-led Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality allocated forest land for the establishment of Koç University as a foundation university. Although a lawsuit was filed claiming that the land allocation was illegal, construction continued, and the university was opened.

The AKP's first Minister of National Education (Erkan Mumcu) prepared a draft law on higher education, stating that ‘we will change the higher education law.’ Steps to bring politics and capital into universities, transform university boards of directors into corporate boards, and commercialise universities were accelerated. Shortly after Abdullah Gül became president, the majority of the YÖK general assembly was composed of individuals close to the AKP, and a theology scholar was appointed as the head of the YÖK education commission.

In 2007, Yusuf Ziya Özcan was appointed as the new YÖK president to replace Erdoğan Teziç, whose term had expired, accelerating the process of staffing the institution with loyalists. Universities in countries with Islamic tendencies and distant from scientific education began to be granted equivalence.

Yusuf Ziya Özcan's first statement upon taking office was, ‘Universities should be fee-based.’

In 2008, a law was enacted stipulating that the first rectors of universities would not be elected, but rather that candidates wishing to become rectors would apply to YÖK, which would select three candidates and submit them to the president, who would then appoint one of them as rector. Following this law, Gül appointed AKP supporters as rectors of newly established universities.

With dozens of regulations, laws, and amendments to regulations, and the presidential system, the Presidential Council for Education and Teaching Policies was established with names from capital and corporate sectarian structures, creating a mechanism where a single individual decides on all matters related to higher education.

Insecure employment, the subjugation of universities to market forces, political appointments, and the expulsions that followed the 15 July coup attempt, particularly targeting the Peace Academics, have caused devastating destruction in academia.

The destruction of public, free, high-quality education has reached its peak. For the first time in the country's history, the ratio of private schools to public schools has reached 24%. Public schools have also been monetised under names such as registration fees, donations, dues and clubs.

Resources not allocated to public schools were transferred to private schools and foundation university owners. Since the general election, subsidies have been transferred to private vocational high schools three times, reaching a rate of 100%. While school meals for preschool children in the earthquake zone were discontinued on the grounds of budget cuts, support for private schools in the earthquake zone was announced.

The budget allocated to education, which was 30% in 1998 and 17% in 2002, has dropped to 9.73% in 2025. Education has been stripped of its status as a right and has become one of the largest expenditure items for the public. With the increase in poverty, the number of children dropping out of school has exceeded one and a half million. Children were taken out of schools under the name of MESEM (vocational education centres) and turned into free labour for capital using funds allocated from the unemployment fund and the taxes of the people.

Village schools and public dormitories were closed. Public lands and resources were transferred to capital and corporatised sects. Karamanlar and Aladağlar were created all over the country. The rape and abuse of 45 children in Ensar's dormitory in Karaman was acquitted in parliament with laughter, with the excuse that “one time is no big deal”. In Aladağ, 11 girls lost their lives in a fire at an unlicensed dormitory belonging to the Süleymancılar sect. In Karaman, Kulp, Aladağ, Taşkent, Dikili and dozens of other places across our country, children whose village schools were closed and who were left with no public dormitories to go to were forced into sects due to the helplessness of poverty. Their lives and hopes were taken away from them.

Such an examination system and school policy were created that while the number and quotas of academic high schools were reduced, more than half of the high schools were turned into imam hatip and vocational high schools. A system was established where children were forced to attend these schools or private schools, either to be turned into a new generation for the new regime or into cheap/free labour for capital.

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HOW WAS TEACHING DESTROYED?

Under the guise of “project schools,” academically successful high schools were transformed into schools where the Ministry of Education/government decided which administrators and teachers would work there, accelerating the process of forming political cadres.

With the statements included in the Maarif Model, career steps, hourly wages, contract work, job insecurity, and low wages were normalised with the aim of creating a “teacher profile” suitable for the “new vision of humanity, state, and society.” During the AKP's rule, the most intense appointments were made in the field of religious culture and ethics teaching. This field became a lever for political cadre formation. Political cadre formation continued unabated through inter-institutional transfers (particularly to the Directorate of Religious Affairs) and spiritual counselling programmes. Cadre formation continued at full speed through methods such as interviews, security investigations and archive searches in the selection of education administrators and teacher appointments.

Under the name of ‘project schools,’ high schools with high academic achievement were turned into schools where the ministry/government decided which administrators and teachers would work in these schools, accelerating political staffing.

Private school owners demanded that the minimum wage right of teachers in private schools be revoked. Private schools have become the primary venues for labour exploitation, flexible, insecure, and low-wage employment.

The Teaching Profession Law (ÖMK) and the National Education Academy have eliminated job security. The ÖMK has created a repressive apparatus through which the political regime decides who will be appointed, who will be able to continue in their profession, who will receive personal and professional rights, and who will become school administrators. The National Education Academy has established a structure that allows anyone with a bachelor's degree to be appointed as a teacher, enabling political appointments to continue at full speed, effectively closing the doors of education faculties. The last hopes of teachers who have been waiting for years for appointment have also been taken away.

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A NEVER-ENDING AKP PROJECT: FETULLAHISATION IN EDUCATION

A structure has been established that operates in accordance with the ideological agenda of the political authority, which holds unlimited power and financial resources. This structure is managed by individuals appointed by the president, and in the event of a vacancy on the board of trustees, the new member is also selected by the board. Even if the ruling party changes, the board of trustees remains unchanged.

The Blessed Birth Weeks (renamed Mevlid-i Nebi Week after the 15 July coup attempt) and events such as the Turkish Language Olympics became the cornerstones of Fethullah Gülen's organisation in public schools.

How did Gülen, who was a preacher at the Bornova Mosque in Izmir in 1966, become a power with schools, tutoring centres, and dormitories in our country and around the world in the 2000s?

Although he was detained on 12 March 1971, he was released shortly thereafter. In 1975, he established the ‘Nur Camps.’ During the summer months, he educated children from poor families aged 13-15 in the Edremit and Kemalpaşa regions of İzmir. He also published the magazine ‘Sızıntı’ during this period.

The establishment of the Akevler Cooperative was the first step in his political relations. The cooperative included many district governors, governors, judges, and prosecutors among its members. Later, these individuals were elected as members of parliament from the ANAP and DYP parties, and in the 3 November 2002 elections, they were elected as members of parliament from the AKP and became ministers.

He was wanted after 12 September 1980 but was never caught. He was always under the protection of Turgut Özal. He met Özal before the 1977 elections. Özal, who was a MSP candidate in Izmir, received support from Gülen and his followers. Gülen supported the 1982 Constitution.

He supported the ANAP in the 1983 elections. The ANAP's time in power benefited the Fethullahçılar. The Fethullahçılar, who began to organise in military high schools, police colleges and non-commissioned officer schools, intensified their activities within the state apparatus. They focused on organising themselves in the Turkish Armed Forces, the judiciary, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of National Education. In 1986, it was discovered that Gülen's ‘Akyazılar Foundation’ had admitted students to military schools with fake health reports. Many people were arrested, but Gülen was not even scratched.

In 1995, he established close ties with the media. A ‘web of interests’ was formed with numerous writers, mainly liberals. Close relationships were established with politicians such as Tansu Çiller, Mesut Yılmaz, Bülent Ecevit, and Hikmet Çetin: During his presidency, Süleyman Demirel awarded him prizes.

Within 24 years, with incredible organisation, he established 500 schools, workplaces, newspapers, television stations and radio stations both in Turkey and abroad. He began to play with trillions. He opened schools in many countries from Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan. Who was in control of all this? The US administration, which wanted to control the Central Asian republics and the Middle East...

As Gülen put it, the “Houses of Light” (where the ‘students’/'brothers" lived) and the construction of a new regime/generation were financed by tradesmen and businessmen who were provided with commercial opportunities. The aim was to find new financial resources and human resources as a way of extending the community's network. Many people from the business, sports, media, university, and political circles lined up to meet Gülen and appear in photos with him.

Claiming that they ‘walked these paths together,’ the movement reached the peak of its power in the 2000s. It established itself in all institutions, especially in education. Thousands of young people had years of hard work stolen from them in a exam cheating scandal. All the conditions were created that led to the coup attempt on 15 July.

The only things that changed in the process of the Turkish Language Olympics being ‘transformed’ into the Turkish Education Summit were the names of the sect, foundation, association and event. Public funds were transferred to the Turkey Maarif Foundation, creating a structure operating in 52 countries. While no budget was allocated for free school meals for children living in poverty, the Maarif Foundation received 1 billion 871 million in 2022 and 2 billion 325 million between January and May 2023.

A structure was established with unlimited authority and financial power, whose management is determined by the president, and whose board of trustees will appoint a new member in the event of a vacancy, even if the government changes, and which carries out ideological activities in line with the needs of the political power.

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PREPARATIONS FOR THE FINAL BLOW TO EDUCATION

Through protocols and collaborations with capital and corporate sect structures, primarily ÇEDES, non-educators such as imams, preachers, muezzins, sects, and ideological youth organisations have begun to carry out ideological activities under dozens of names, including camps, summer schools, trips, and symposiums, from pre-school to higher education.

The main agenda in recent days has been the debate on compulsory education, with the aim of gradually eliminating free, public education alongside the abolition of mixed education. With the vocational and technical education policy statement, four new school models, and steps to open middle school sections in vocational high schools, preparations are being made to take 60-70% of children out of school and turn them into child labourers for capital, and to turn all schools into MESEMs.

Accelerated by capitalism's call for cheap/free labour, the Year of the Family, the targeting of gender equality, mixed education, the Civil Code, population and birth policies, and, of course, constitutional amendments that raise the age of compulsory education and prevent children from getting married. The aim is to increase child marriages for children under the age of 18 who are of compulsory education age.

Education is the most effective area for building and perpetuating a new regime. The AKP, which is the heir to the actors of the process that led to the 1980 coup and the 1980 coup plotters, has done whatever national and international capital and corporate sects wanted for 23 years. Because it owed its existence and political survival to imperialism and capitalism. Now, it is preparing for the final round of destruction with education policies and constitutional amendments.

SETBACKS IN EDUCATION BEFORE THE AKP

Following the end of World War II in 1945, Turkey held its first multi-party elections in 1946. After the elections, as the right wing gained power under the CHP government, the rapprochement with the United States (US) deepened, and education gradually moved away from secularism, scientific principles, and democracy.

The state, which had withdrawn from religious education in the 1930s, made a U-turn in the late 1940s under President İsmet İnönü. As a result of the CHP's controversial 7th Congress, the republic's progressive promises, such as land reform, were put on hold, and reactionary forces gained momentum in education: Koran courses were opened; optional religious education was introduced in the 4th and 5th grades of primary schools ‘at the request of parents,’ and a faculty of theology was opened in Ankara. The process of closing the Village Institutes, which were the only hope for changing the future lives of poor village children, was initiated.

Imam Hatip schools were opened in 1951 during the Menderes era. In the 1963-1964 academic year, boarding students were admitted to Imam Hatip schools free of charge. Imam Hatip schools became compulsory as places of refuge for the poor and desperate. During Demirel's tenure, female students who could not become imams were also admitted to these schools in 1966. During the Nationalist Front (MC) governments established by Demirel between 1975 and 1980, 237 imam hatip secondary schools were opened in a short period of time.

Again during the Democratic Party era, elective religion classes in primary schools were made compulsory, this time not based on parents' wishes but, on their refusal, (those who did not want their children to attend had to submit a written request). Elective religion classes were introduced in secondary schools in 1956 and in high schools during Süleyman Demirel's prime ministership. The Bülent Ecevit-Necmettin Erbakan government made Moral Education a compulsory subject in schools in 1974. The 12 September government then made Religious Culture and Moral Education a compulsory subject in the 1982 Constitution.

During Demirel's time, in the 1960s, Law No. 333 granted the authority to open Quran courses to the Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB) and, consequently, to the muftis, under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education (MEB). After this date, the number of Quran courses opened by both the DİB and illegally increased.

During the 12 September 1980 coup regime and the Motherland Party (ANAP) era, these courses began to be given more importance. Again during this period, under Kenan Evren, on 18 June 1983, Law No. 1739 on the Basic Education Act was amended to grant imam hatip students the right to enter higher education institutions other than the Military Academy. During the tenure of Prime Minister Turgut Özal, in the 1985-1986 academic year, Anatolian Imam Hatip High Schools offering education in foreign languages were established; subsequently, Imam Hatip Schools adopted the “multi-programme high school” model and introduced foreign language-intensive “super high schools”.

When eight years of compulsory education was adopted in 1997, Koran courses were to be attended after compulsory education, but the Mesut Yılmaz-Ecevit government, despite the Council of State's annulments, amended the relevant regulations several times to allow attendance after the fifth grade. These changes, followed by the rise to power of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), led to a doubling of the number of Quran courses. After the AKP reduced penalties for those opening unlicensed courses, the number of unlicensed Quran courses also increased rapidly. The supervision of places providing religious education was taken away from the Ministry of National Education and given to the Directorate of Religious Affairs. In 2013, amendments to the Turkish Penal Code removed the crime of establishing or operating an educational institution in violation of the law.

By the mid-1990s, the number of imam hatip schools exceeded 600, with over 500,000 students. Graduates of these schools generally pursued careers in teaching, law, and political science at universities. In 1997, out of 50,725 imam hatip graduates who took the university entrance exam, only 3,490 chose teaching as their field of study. The Refah Party's congress on 13 October 1996 emphasised that ‘the current generation is the result of investments made in Imam Hatip schools and Quran courses,’ and this was not without reason.

Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled Hatırlatmalar | AKP’yle 25 yıllık kesintisiz piyasacı ve tarikatçı eğitim, published in BirGün newspaper on May 18, 2025.