The Turkish Ministry of National Education (MoNE) has implemented the Primary Education Support Programme (İYEP). The programme aims to address learning gaps in literacy and numeracy at an early stage, while fostering academic, social, and emotional development.

The MoNE launched İYEP to help third-year students who lag behind in literacy and numeracy. The programme aims to address individual learning needs early on, thereby improving the overall quality of education.

İYEP began as a pilot in 12 provinces during the second semester of the 2017–2018 school year and was rolled out nationwide from 2018-2019. Starting with the 2026–2027 school year, İYEP will align with Türkiye’s new skills-based curriculum, the Century of Türkiye Education Model.

The programme’s content, instructional methods, and learning materials will be revised to ensure coherence with the updated framework and to provide enhanced support for the skills targeted by the new curriculum.

İYEP helps students develop basic listening and speaking skills, overcome early reading and writing challenges, improve reading comprehension, strengthen mathematical literacy, apply numeracy skills to everyday situations, and articulate their thinking during problem-solving.

The programme also seeks to boost students’ self-confidence and fosters positive attitudes towards learning. Moreover, it provides academic, social, and emotional support to close gaps in literacy and numeracy.

The programme consists of three core components: literacy, numeracy, and school counselling. It covers 38 learning outcomes, including reading, writing, comprehension in the Turkish language, and number sense and operations in mathematics.

Students identified as needing support will receive up to 160 hours of supplementary instruction after school or on weekends. İYEP is divided into six modular units – three in literacy and three in numeracy – structured progressively from basic to more advanced levels.

At the beginning of each school year, the İYEP Student Assessment Tool (ÖBA) will be administered to identify eligible students and to determine the specific modules required. The tool includes open-ended questions scored according to standardized rubrics provided in the Teacher Guidelines Form.

Results are entered into the e-Okul System (MoNE Data Monitoring System), which identifies students’ eligibility for participation.

Depending on their needs, students may attend only literacy modules, only numeracy modules, or both. Of the total instructional time, 96 hours are allocated to literacy and 64 hours to numeracy. Typical groups will consist of one to six students, with a maximum of ten.

For more information: https://iyep.meb.gov.tr/

Source: Eurydice Unit Türkiye