Minister Avcı speaking at the Teachers House in the Central Anatolian provincial center of Eskişehir said there are 6 thousand 316 private schools in Turkey and that 787 thousand 315 students are educted in these schools.

Minister Avcı stressed that the Ministry had started an incentives and support program targeting private school students and reported that 167 thousand 424 students benefitted from the incentives program.

Minister Avcı said each year the amount and number of incentives to be issued are determined jointly by the Ministry of National Education and the Finance Ministry said this year they expect the number incentives and the amount provided to students will increase and added “as the Ministry of National Education we asked for incentives for 350 thousand students. We want to increase this number because the prep schools that were converted into high schools have become basic schools. Thus there will be students going to these schools who need support thus we want to increase the number and amount of the incentives. So we asked the Ministry of Finance to increase the amount earmarked for incentives by ten percent. Our negotiations are in progress.”

Also providing information about the prep schools being transformed into private schools Minister Avcı said “until now 2 thousand 262 prep schools applied to become private schools and 2 thousand 228 of these were approved. The applications for this program will continue until September 1.” Minister Avcı also reported that 364 of these schools had been given licenses.

Pointing to the criteria being used in the transformation process of the prep schools the minister lamented that a defamation campaign had been launched against the ministry since the process began. 

Minister Avcı said despite this campaign “many positive assessments and reports were issued by international institutions about the Turkish national education system.”