Session Information
25 SES 9.5 PE/PS, Poster Exhibition / Poster Session
Contribution
Policymakers in developing countries must work on improving school access in general and developing strategies to reach out of school children in specific. Out of school children is the terminology used to describe two groups of children; those who never enrolled and those who enrolled but dropped out (Moyi, 2010). Some children do not enroll to school although they are in compulsory school age and many children do enroll in school on time yet, drop out before completing compulsory schooling. Therefore, research and policy action are required at these two process – entry and completion (Moyi, 2010).
Turkey reflects her commitments to the Millennium Development Goals for achieving gender parity and 100 percent school access to the country national educational policy. The Ninth Development Plan (2007-2013) focuses on 100 percent access and states that “Necessary measures, which primarily target the rural areas and girls, will be taken in order to reduce the school drop outs and increase the rate of transition to secondary education”(p. 100). The Strategic Plan of the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) (2010-2014) is parallel to country policy and focuses on decreasing drop outs and eliminating gender parity by 2014. For these objectives, disadvantage children who do not have access to school are on the target of MoNE. MoNE policies emphasize improving equity as much as quality in education for about a decade. To increase school access and eliminate the gender gap in primary school enrollment two important initiatives of MoNE are ‘The Girls’ Education Campaign (GEC)’ and ‘Catch-Up Education Program (CEP)’.
The aim of former program, focus of this study, is to integrate or reintegrate the children on compulsory schooling ages into the formal education system through a crash course. Without this course these children would not be able to complete their education at the same time as their peers. The program targets 10 to 14 years old children who (i)have never enrolled to school, (ii)have dropped out, (iii)are at least three grades behind their peers. Target group consists of children who are in prison and detention houses; are street children; work on the streets, industry, agriculture and service industry; were not able to attend school due to economical or traditional reasons.
Board of Education approved the Directive in July 2008 and launched the program nationwide in September 2008. By the end of first years of the implementation 2000 children were reached and second year 19,990 children were reached (37.3% boys; 62.7% girls).
The CEP has four consecutive education programs and based on a student academic level, he completes at least one program and then transferred to formal education.
The purpose of this study is to describe program experiences. For this purposes, implementation research approached is used to focuses on the question -what is happening- in the design, implementation, administration, operation, services, and outcomes of the programs. Werner (2004) states that “ The core mission of implementation research to describe, assess, and explain "what is happening and why"”.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Hunt, F. (2008). Dropping Out from School:A Cross Country Review of Literature. Patways to access. Research Monograph No 16 Moyi, P. (2010). Household characteristics and delayed school enrollment in Malawi. International journal of educational development, 30, 236–242 SPO, 2010. Millenium Development Goals Report. Turkey 2010. T.R. Prime Ministry Undersecretariat of State Planning Organization http://www.undp.org.tr/publicationsDocuments/TR%202010%20MDG%20Report_EN.pdf MoNE, 2010. National Education Statistics. Formal Education. 2009-2010. Werner, A. (2004). Guide to Implementation Research. Urban Institute Press.
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