Turkish National Education System. The education in Turkey is performed under the supervision and surveillance of the state. According to the article 42 of the Constitution of Republic of Turkey; anybody has the right of education. The individuals are oriented towards various programs and schools in relation and in proportion with their interests and talents and trained in these schools. It is essential that the educational system should realise this orientation. According to the National Education Fundamental Law numbered 1739; the purpose of education to educate and train democratic citizens respectful to the human rights that adopt the values of the Turkish nation, know their duties and responsibilities against their country and put them into practice and also to train individuals capable of using of and benefiting from the information and technology. Furthermore, the education aims to prepare the individuals for the future, and to provide them with a profession that will contribute to the satisfaction and happiness of themselves and the society.
There has been a great increase in the number of the schools, students and teachers since the first years of the Republic up to now. Studies have been carried out for training qualified manpower and an extensive mass of people has been reached. Since the education is considered as the most important element of the economical, technological and social development within the country, the education takes an important place in the governmental and development plans. As a matter of fact, the education has been included within the 7th Five-Year Development plan as the sector of primary priority.
Towards the years of 2000, Turkey continues to develop its educational system and programs, teachers, infrastructure and the educational materials in order to train the Turkish individuals that will contribute to the world culture and technology. The resources are continuously increased in order to meet the requirement of the population for education and great efforts have been endeavoured in order to establish proper infrastructure for the accomplishment of the targets and expectations in education. To this effect, the arrangements for the Educational Main Plan have been carried out including the years of 1996-2010. The ongoing studies are also performed towards the provision of the flexibility of the education in order to meet the individual, national and global requirements and the increase of the facilities for the entrance and exit in the system.
According to the National Education Fundamental Law numbered 1739; the Turkish National Education System is composed of two main sections as Organised Education and Diffused Education. The organised education means the schools system and it is composed of the preschool, primary school, secondary school and the higher education. The diffused education is composed of all activities that are organised out of the schools or near the schools. In the academic year of 1998-1999, totally 14.668.444 students have attended to 64.489 units of organised and diffused educational institutions and there have been 512.522 teachers who have been in charge in these institutions.