Primary School Teachers’ Views on Compulsory Education (4+4+4): A Sample of Bayrampasa District

Bünyamin Bavlı; Hasan Aydın

Primary School Teachers’ Views on Compulsory Education (4+4+4): A Sample of Bayrampasa District

Author :

Year-Number: 2015-Volume 7, Issue 3

Language : null

Konu : null

Number of pages:

Mendeley

EndNote

Alıntı Yap

English Turkish

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the views of primary school teachers, who work in the public schools located in İstanbul, on 12- year of compulsory education (4 + 4 + 4 Training System) reformed by the Ministry of National Education in the 2012-2013 academic year. A Likert-type scale developed by the researchers consists of a total of 21 questions. 18 of the questions are close –ended questions, 3 is the open-ended questions. A total of 129 classroom teachers agreed to participate in this study. To analyze open-ended questions, qualitative research method, descriptive analyses technique was used. The results of this study showed that, there was no significant difference on the basis of gender, faculties and departments. The surveyed teachers expressed following hesitations: current status of educational institutions is not sufficient for this application, inaquality of opportunities across the country is a major obstacle and that may reduce the quality of the applications, application quickly developed and implemented without consultation of the teachers, starting age of compulsory education (60-66 months) ahead of time, 36 weekly course hours is excessive, improvement of the financial situation of employees is required

Keywords

Abstract

Keywords

Kaynakça

Many definitions have been made about education in the literature. In general, “education is the sum of the process in which individuals acquire the behavior” (Varış, 1998, p.5). Fidan (2012, p.4) defines education as “individuals in the context of specific puposes”. In educational institutions; education which is mainly realized a result of the interaction and participation of teachers and students is composed of different levels preschool, elementary, secondary and higher education. Education is carried out as formal and informal education, the main task of the state and compulsory in many countries. Considering the definition of compulsory education is a legal form of expression refers to an individual's experience as a specific training should be taken in specific institutions.

Compulsory education also describes a certain period of education. The subject period may include some or all of basic education or may also go far beyond the basic education (Basaran, 1982, as cited in Suzen, 2004). In addition, the necessity and obligation of education was also expressed by many organizations and institutions in the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), article 26 states that everyone has the right to education, at least basic education should be free and compulsory. The European Convention on Human Rights (1952) Article 2 states that no one shall be deprived of education. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) Article 13 states that basic education is compusory. Also The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990) Article 28 states that education should be compulsory and free.

Several researchers, including Le Metais (2008) argue that “many countries have reviewed their school curriculum during the years leading up to the third millenium” (p. 235). When the European countries are taken into consideration, it is clearly seen that compulsory education period is for minimum 8 years and in many countries it is even more than 10, between 11-13 like Portugal, the United Kingdom (North Ireland), Hungary and Netherlands (Eurodice, 2012). In Turkey, education is 8-year compulsory since 1997 and has undergone many changes and has become compulsory. One of these is the amendment to the Basic Education Act in 1973. With the subject amendment, the duration of compulsory education was extended to 8 years but the application was abandoned for reasons such as the limitation of financial resources, the lack of infrastructure, the lack of completion of preparatory curriculum integration, the lack of qualified manpower (Yurt, 1993, p.24). Especially Sisman (2007) emphasizes that compulsory education is planned and implemented as a public policy. When looked at the short history of compulsory education in Turkey, Gunduz (2011) underlines the following statements;

Table 1. Brief history of compulsory education before and after the Republic of Turkey 1824 The obligation to attend elementary (Sıbyan) school until the age of puberty 1847 Obligation to attend four year elementary (Sıbyan) school and two-year Rüştiye (Ottoman Junior High School) 1869 Four-year primary school (Sıbyan mektebi) and Rüştiye (Ottoman Junior High School) two- year is compulsory. 1913 Again, it was decided to inrease the compulsory education to six years. 1921 Compulsory education was reduced to four years. Willing ones can continue one year further. 1923 The period of compulsory education was increased to five years. 1973 It was decided to start eight - year education. Trial applications were started. 1997 Compulsory education was extended to eight-year throughout the country. 2012 12- years compulsory education was started.

Table 1 shows that there has been a continuous change in the national education system from past to present. In brief, change requirement of the age effected the education in developing country. Thus, what are the causes and sources of compulsory education in Turkey? The National Education Council which is organized by the Ministry of National Education and during which the Turkish Education System is discussed exhaustively and the results are adjudicated. The National Education Council was firstly organized under the chairmanship of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in order to create a new perspective about the state of education in Ankara on July 16, 1921 (MoNE, 1921). Later on, it was organized under the name of “Delegation of Scientific Studies” (Heyet-i İlmiye Çalışmaları). The legal basis of the National Education Council was organized in 1933 and the first meeting was held in 1939 (Deniz, 2001, pp. 10-12). When the recent councils are reviewed, decisions are noticeable about the 12-Year compulsory education. For instance, 12-year compulsory education was discussed (Article 9) in XVI. the National Education Council in 1999 (MoNE, 1999). In the next council held in 2006, The Seventeenth National Education Council, organized after six years it was decided to (Article 66) start preparations to increase compulsory education to 12-Years (MoNE, 2006). The final decision on the 12- Year Compulsory Education was made in The Seventeenth National Education Council in 2010. In Article II of the decisions taken, the 12-year compulsory education requirement are expressed in the following words: Keeping students age groups and individual differences in mind, “compulsory education should be 13 years (1 year pre-school education, four years of basic education, 4 years of guidance and preparation for secondary education and 4 years of secondary education) by keeping in mind the students age groups and individual differences” (MoNE, 2010, p. 7). The results of the study are expected to provide a positive contribution to decision makers on educational applications.

Method Design The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate the views of primary school teachers on the 12year Compulsory Education System and to define if there occurs any difference on teachers’ views according to the variables of their gender, age, period of service, education and the faculty they graduated. Since survey model aims to describe the existing situation as it stands in the past or at the present, descriptive survey model was used in this study (Karasar, 2005). In the analysis of the data collected through the scale, frequency, percentage, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t test were used for statistical analyzes. To analyze qualitative data, open-ended questions were descriptive analyses techniqueused for the analysis. Descriptive analysis is summarizing and interpreting the data according to the theme set before (Yildirim & Simsek, 2011). Participants This study was conducted with 129 primary school teachers teaching at the state schools in Bayrampaşa district of İstanbul. As there was not the possibility to reach all the primary school teachers in the population, simple random sampling which was used by the researcher to select participants so that any individual has an equal probability of being selected from the population (Creswell, 2012, p.144). As a result, as the researcher was also teaching in the same district, qustionnaires were delivered to 160 primary school teachers teaching at different primary schools in Bayrampaşa District. Subsequently, it was the 80,6% of the questionnaires that was exacltly completed. 60 of totaly participating teachers were male and 69 of totaly participating teachers were female. Besides, when the distribution of teachers according to the length of service examined, it was as following: 26.7% of teachers had 01-09 years length of service, 47, 7% of teachers had 10-19 years length of service, 18.6% of teachers had 20-29 years length of service, 7% of teachers had 30 years and over length of service. When the distribution of teachers by level of education analyzed, 19,8% of teachers had undergraduate, 77,9% of teachers had graduate and 2,3% of teachers had post gradute degree. On the other hand, none of the teachers participated in the study had doctoral degree. Furthermore, when the distribution of teachers analyzed by graduated faculty, 82,6% of the teachers were gradute of school of education, 9,3% teachers were graduate of faculty of arts and sciences and %8,1 of teachers were gradute of other faculties. Data Collection Instruments To define the primary school teachers views on the 12-Year Compulsory Education System, 5 point Likert type scale which was designed by the researcher by using the booklet "The 12-Year Compulsory Education, Questions-Answers" prepared by the Ministry of National Education to answer questions about the new regulation. The scale was comprised of 21 items, 3 of them were open ended questions. Qualitative data was gathered through the open-ended questions at the end of the scale. During the the development of the scale, opinion of experts from academics and PhD studentsin the field of education were used. Data Analysis In the analysis of quantitative data, frequency, percentage, t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques are used. In the process of interpretation of qualitative data consisted of open-ended questions descriptive analysis of technique was used. Limitations Current study is limited with 129 primary school teachers working at the public schools in Bayrampaşa district of İstanbul. It is limited to the 2012-2013 academic years. In the study, the teachers are assumed to respond to the questions sincerely. Findings In this part, teachers’ answers to the closed-ended questions were analyzed with frequency, percentage, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test statistical methods. Then the findings related to the teachers openended questions were presented. Findings realated to primary school teachers views on the 12-year xompulsory education When the participation frequency and percentage level of teachers to the “I think, 12-Year Compulsory Education is a necessary change” item analyzed, there appears to be no difference of the participation to the item. Most of the teachers think thatfor an effective 12- Year Compulsory Education, classrooms and buildings are insufficient. In addition to this, teachers think that the training on 12 -Year Compulsory Education which was given to school principals and teachers at the end of the 2011-2012 academic year is insufficient and current teachers are not adequate for 12- year compulsory education. On the other hand, in 12Year Compulsory Education, secondary school should start at the 6th grade as before and most of the teachers think that, there should also be elective courses in primary school. Furthermore, two hours elective courses are inadequeate and elective courses should be taught by regular staff instead of substitute teachers. Most of the primary school teachers think that starting age (60-66 months) of compulsory education is before time, at early ages. Teachers also think that in addition to İmam Hatip Secondary School, there should be other types of secondary schools (such as Anatolian, Science, Social and Vocational) in 12-Year Compulsory Education. On the determination of the elective courses, most of the teachers think that it should be with the cooperation of teachers, students and parents. Furthermore, most of the teachers think that starting to teach foreign languages at the 2th grade in primary schools is favorable but at the same time foreign languages should be taught by the course teachers as it should be in elecetive courses. Teachers also think that weekly course hours of the secondary school students are excessive for students. But it should be expressed that weekly course hours of the secondary school students was changed (number of weekly courses was reduced) by chairman of the Board of Education in 2013 (TTKB, 2013). As in item 3 (teachers think, there are no sufficient classrooms and buildings), most of the teachers think that using the same building as a primary and secondary is not good and double shift schooling adversely affects the education. Finally, on satifactoriness of weekly 8 hours elective courses, it seems most of the teachers are undecided. Table 2. Frequency and percentage values related to primary school teachers views on 12-Year Compulsory education Table 3. Results of t- test on primary school teachers views on 12-year compulsory education by gender variable

23 26,7 15 17,4 8 9,3 25 29,1 15 17,4 I think, there are sufficient classrooms and buildings for an effective 12 -Year Compulsory Education. Live interactive training on 12- Year Compulsory Education which was given to school principals and teachers at the end of the 2011-2012 academis year (3 weeks in June, September 2 weeks) is sufficient I think, current number of the teachers is adequate for 12 Year Compulsory Education.

“starting grade students failed to adapt to the school” (Dirlik, 2014, p.57). Another study also supports this

period” (Boz, 2013, p.90)

Fidan, N. (2012). Okulda öğrenme ve öğretme. Ankara: PegemA Yayıncılık.

Gündüz, M. (2011). Zorunlu ve kesintisiz eğitimin kısa tarihi. Eğitime Bakış, Eğitim-Öğretim ve Bilim Araştırma

Dergisi, 21,3-10. Gür, B. S. ve Çelik, Z. (2009). Türkiye’de eğitim sistemi yapısal sorunlar ve öneriler. Retreived on August 5, 2014,

from: http://goo.gl/e0ZGJA Karadeniz, C., B. (2012). Öğretmenlerin 4+4+4 zorunlu eğitim sistemine ilişkin görüşleri. Eğitim Bilim Toplum

Dergisi, 10 (40), 34-53. Karasar, N. (2005). Bilimsel araştırma yöntemi. Ankara: Nobel Yayın Dağıtım Külekçi, E. (2013). 4+4+4 Eğitim sistemi kapsamında birleştirilmiş sınıf uygulamasına ilişkin öğretmen

görüşlerinin değerlendirilmesi. Eğitim ve Öğretim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2 (2), 369-377. Külekçi, E., Tasci, G., Fidan, M. ve Nurlu, Ö. (2014). 4+4+4 Sistem değişikliğinin ilk yılında birinci sınıflardaki

10.12973/jesr.2014.4os8a Le Metais, J. (2003). International trends in curriculum frameworks, The Educational Forum, 67(3), 235-247,

doi: 10.1080/00131720309335037 MEB. (2012). İlköğretimden ortaöğretime, ortaöğretimden yükseköğretime geçiş analizi. Ankara: MEB Gazi Meslekî

Eğitim Merkezi Matbaası. MEB. (1961). İlköğretim ve eğitim kanunu. Retreived on September 3, 2014, from

http://mevzuat.meb.gov.tr/html/24.html. MEB. (2012). 12 yıl zorunlu eğitim sorular- cevaplar. Retreived on December 20, 2014, from http://goo.gl/0YLpUW MEB. (2012). Zorunlu eğitim. Retreived on November 10, 2014, from:

http://www.meb.gov.tr/stats/apk2001ing/section_4/compulsoryeducation1.htm MEB. (2014). Şuralar.

Retreived on November 10, 2014, from: http://ttkb.meb.gov.tr/www/suralar/dosya/12 Memisoglu, S.P. ve Ismetoglu, M. (2013). Zorunlu eğitimde 4+4+4 uygulamasına ilişkin okul yöneticilerinin

görüşleri. Eğitim ve Öğretim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2 (2), 14-25. Peker Ünal, D. (2013). Sınıf öğretmenlerinin 4+4+4 uygulamasına yönelik görüşleri. 4th International Conference

on New Trends in Education and Their Implications (25-27 Nisan 2013), Antalya. Sabah Gazetesi. (2012). Türkiye’nin eğitim tablosu. Retreived on December 11, 2014, from

http://www.sabah.com.tr/Egitim/2012/04/18/turkiyenin-egitim-tablosu Süzen, Z.B. (2004). Sekiz yıllık zorunlu eğitim değerlendirilmesi. Yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi. Ankara:

Gazi Üniversitesi. Şişman, M. (2007). Eğitim bilimine giriş. Ankara: PegemA Yayıncılık. TDK.(2014). Güncel Türkçe sözlük. Retreived on Septemver 14, 2014, from: http://goo.gl/MmWIkp TTKB, (2013). ilköğretim kurumları (ilkokul ve ortaokul) haftalık ders çizelgesinin ortaokul

kısmında değişiklik yapılması. Retreived on October 14, 2014, from

http://ttkb.meb.gov.tr/www/haftalik-ders-cizelgeleri/kategori/7 U.N. (2014). The universal declaration of human rights. Retreived on December 22, 2014, from:

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ U.N.H.R. (1966). International covenant on economic, social and cultural rights. Retreived on November 10, 2014,

from: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx U.N.H.R. (1966). Convention on the rights of the child. Retreived on November 10, 2014, from:

Yildirim, A. ve Simsek, H. (2011). Sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri. Ankara: Seçkin

YOK. (1981). Yükseköğretim kanunu. Retreived on September 18, 2014, from: http://goo.gl/sZg0Yl

Yurt, İ. (1993). 2000 Yılına kadar 8 yıllık zorunlu eğitim için fizik altyapı gereksinimi ve finansman sorunları.

Retreived on November 10, 2014, from http://kitaplar.ankara.edu.tr/dosyalar/pdf/009.pdf

Last issue
Previous issues
Article Statistics