Early Childhood Education as well as primary and secondary education is financed mostly by the government. In these education levels, teacher salaries, non-teaching personnel, all the expenses related to materials used for teaching and other necessary equipment are provided by the government. In early childhood education, financial support is given to families. Pre-school educational institutions offer free educational materials and materials for cleaning, however, they may charge parents to a certain extent. Parent-School Association is one of the responsible bodies providing service for the school expenses and other expenses related to teaching/learning. This support is collected through different kinds of activities organized by the Parent-School Association and the contribution of family-to-family associations from families/children's.
Funding for Early Childhood Education
Early childhood education in Turkey is provided via kindergartens, nursery classes, and application classes. Although education is free in pre-school education institutions, certain amounts can be charged for nutrition, cleaning and educational materials in a way that does not challenge the economic situation of the families. Teachers’ salaries, non-teaching personnel’s salaries, teaching materials, and other institutional fees in these institutions are funded individually by uniform standards on the basis of the number of learners enrolled in the school. In addition, the support is provided by parents, the budget of the city council, project funds, donations, municipalities, and other support types.
In addition, the private sector runs its own private preschools.
Funding for Primary Education
Primary education consists of secondary schools including all religious schools and compulsory secondary schools with 4-year primary schools. Although these institutions are funded by the state budget in our country, they receive the share allocated to the project to obtain funds from donations and contributions through special provincial administrations.
In addition, the private sector runs its own private primary schools.
Funding of Secondary Education
Secondary education consists of secondary schools including all religious schools and compulsory secondary schools with 4-year primary schools. Although these institutions are funded by the state budget in our country, vocational and technical schools the share allocated to the project to obtain funds from donations and contributions through a revolving fund. In addition, the private sector runs its own private secondary schools.
Financial Autonomy and Control
There is not much autonomy given to schools by the financial decentralization and the so-called “delegated budgets”. State schools do not have autonomy over certain issues and they do not execute their own implemented policies. Due to the centralized structure of the Turkish national education system, the schools affiliated to Ministry of National Education (Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı-MEB) (pre-school education, primary education, secondary education) have limited autonomy with respect to financing. MEB 2023 Education Vision Document states that each school will be given a School Development Budget based on various criteria and school development plan and also positive conditions will be applied to unsuitable schools. The budget allocated for secondary schools cannot be exploited directly by these schools. Instead, budget allocations are planned nationally and provided locally by the province MoNE directories. In addition, separate support is allocated for the special education classes and education rooms in this educational cycle.
Fees in Public Education
Education throughout all school levels is free with no exception or condition whatsoever
Financial Support for Learners' Families
To continue their children's education, families who need financial support the Ministry of National Education in coordination with are supported by the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services "Conditional Training Assistance Program".
Financial Support for Learners
There is a scholarship for those who study at primary and secondary education. This scholarship called “Scholarship for Free Education in a Boarding School” gives successful students a lot of opportunities during their education. In order to increase educational rights for all children living in Turkey, mobile education is provided for those who are in need of educational support at primary, secondary and special education. Students who continue their education in special education schools and special education classes are provided free transportation. Lunch is also offered to students within the scope of bussed education, and lunch service has started to be provided to students attending special education classes in schools. Free transportation service is offered to students within the scope of student transportation application.. There is a free lunch service for daytime students. In addition, free lunch service is provided for daytime students studying in special education schools and vocational and technical Anatolian high schools and who are not in good economic condition.
For each student studying at vocational and technical Anatolian high schools and participating in vocational (skills) training in the enterprise within the scope of the Vocational Education Law No. 3308, payments are made under the name of state contribution to enterprises that have skills training and internship. Businesses that provide skills training and internships; 2/3 or 1/3 of the amount (depending on the size of the enterprise) that is required to be paid to students and which corresponds to at least 30% of the minimum wage is paid as state contribution. From February 2017, when the implementation started, until December 2021, a total of 2,787,871,069-TL government support was paid to enterprises for 10,846,259 students/month. From February 2017, when the implementation started, until May 2021, a total of 2,286,421,672,-TL government support payments were made to enterprises for 9,656,639 students/month. Thus, more businesses are paving the way for providing skills training and internship opportunities to more students, and the payments are updated on the basis of the minimum wage. A qualified vocational education is provided by the skill trainings and internships that the students do in the real business environment in the enterprises.
In order to provide equal opportunities within the compulsory educational cycles, all of the course books are provided without charge for all of the students.
The following changes have been made in the Vocational Education Law No. 3308.
• According to the first amendment made in the Vocational Education Law No. 3308, one-third of the minimum wage received by the students studying in vocational education centers will now be paid by the state.
• With the second amendment, the wages of journeymen at the end of their third year have been increased from one third of the minimum wage to half of the minimum wage.
• With the third amendment, State support for skill training and internship in the enterprise has been increased from 5 to 10.
• With the amendments made in the Vocational Education Law No. 3308 at the end of December 2021, the number of students enrolled in vocational education centers increased from 159 thousand to 320 thousand as of February 2022.
Within the scope of equal opportunity and opportunity in education, free textbooks are distributed at all levels. For the first time in vocational and technical secondary education, textbooks belonging to 47 fields started to be distributed to students free of charge in the 2021-2022 academic year.
Private Education
In Turkey, private kindergartens and schools have their autonomy to spend their own budget according to their own policy, but they respect the same national regulations as the public and municipal ones concerning the state education requirements and the organization of the learning process. They use private properties or properties which are conceded to them. Supervision of the work and the process is done in private education institutions through the Ministry of National Education.
In order to encourage private schools, the “Educational Support Application to be Given to Students to Study in Private Schools” has been initiated as of the 2014-2015 academic year. In this context, education and training support, which varies between 2,500 TL and 3,500 TL per year, has been implemented for 166,563 students, depending on their education and training level. In the 2019-2020 academic year, no new students were admitted within the scope of student support ranging from 3,290 TL to 4,610 TL. However, 84,959 students who completed the level they were placed within the scope of Education and Training Support in the previous academic years benefit from Education and Training Support in amounts ranging from 3,960 TL to 4,610 TL.
In order to increase the quality and employment in vocational and technical education, incentive payments have started since the 2012-2013 academic year for each student studying in private vocational and technical education schools opened in organized industrial zones. As of the 2016-2017 academic year, incentive payments started for each student studying in private vocational and technical education schools opened outside the organized industrial zone.
In this context, by increasing the payment amounts in the 2019 – 2020 academic year; They benefit from education and training support in amounts ranging from 4,590 TL to 7,420 TL per year depending on the education and training level. 72,068 students studying in these schools benefit from education and training support in varying amounts depending on the field.
In addition, vision, hearing, language-speech, voice disorders; Education expenses within the scope of support education of individuals with special education needs who have orthopedic, mental, autistic, social and emotional disorders and students with special education needs who are approved by the special education evaluation boards within the Guidance Research Centers, 1 June 2006, regardless of whether they have social security or not. It is covered by the Ministry of National Education since As of 2019, 415,785 students benefited from the support education.