Two Countries in the Mirror of Education: Britain Pursuing Reform, Turkey Undergoing Change

I was a teacher in Turkey for many years, entering and leaving classrooms, getting to know both the curiosity and the fatigue in my students' eyes. Now, in Britain, immersed in a completely different education system, I often find myself thinking about my former students.

Sometimes a decision made at a meeting, sometimes a method used by a teacher in the classroom makes me sigh inwardly: ‘If only we could see this in Turkey...’ Of course, the opposite also happens; there are moments when I realise that some of our strengths, which have been ingrained in me for years in Turkey, are lacking here.

Being an educator who travels between two countries holds up a mirror to me on the subject of education. Every time I look into this mirror, I see not only the education policies of the UK and Turkey, but also their perspectives on children, their confidence in the future, and the meaning they attach to change.

This is partly why I am writing this article:

To share, in a calm tone, the questions I ask myself, my feelings as an educator caught between two systems, and what I have observed... Let's get to the point!

One of the key issues in the UK in recent days is the education reforms planned for 2028, involving fundamental changes to the curriculum created by the Conservative Party and in force since 2010, but which educators have persistently opposed. In this article, I will attempt to examine and understand the intentions behind these two systems, rather than their steps, because what makes every step taken in education meaningful is actually its direction.

Elevating Art as a Subject: The Strength of the UK, the Losses of Turkey

The UK's decision to place arts subjects on an equal footing with other subjects in its new regulations is not merely a curriculum innovation; it is a shift in perspective. While OECD reports have long stated that creativity supports cognitive skills, the UK has finally heeded this research.

So what is the situation in Turkey? In Turkey, arts subjects are still squeezed into a narrow time slot. Art and music are sacrificed not for the student's sake, but for the ‘intensity’ of the curriculum. We often lose the chance to discover children who can express themselves through art.

If Assessment Changes, Education Changes; In Turkey, Assessment Remains the Same, but the Curriculum Changes Frequently

The UK's abandonment of the EBacc and Progress 8 is not a simple decision; we could say it is a departure from a paradigm. The new approach is a more holistic assessment system that recognises that students are not just about exam papers.

In Turkey, however, the curriculum changes, the books change, the learning outcomes change, and sometimes even the ideological discourse changes, but unfortunately, the assessment system remains the same. The system is still test-centred; the curriculum inevitably continues to revolve around this centre.

The basic rule in education is clear:

You cannot improve what you do not measure. Your approach to education is what your form of measurement is.

Early Intervention in Literacy: The UK Catches the Student, Turkey Misses the Student

The UK aims to control literacy at an earlier age with Year 8 reading and Year 6 writing assessments. Research by the Education Endowment Foundation also shows that early intervention significantly strengthens learning.

In Turkey, despite increasing Turkish lesson hours, literacy skills are stagnating because lessons take place in exam booklets, not in the classroom. Students solve paragraphs but do not understand the text. They write but receive no feedback on what they have written. Teachers struggle to keep up with the time, and the system fails to train teachers. When I look at this vicious cycle and examine the problems Turks generally have with learning foreign languages, I see that, unfortunately, we are failing even in our native language education, let alone foreign language education.

The Curriculum of the Digital Age: The UK is Updating, Turkey is Racing to Keep Up

The UK's making media literacy, digital safety, and financial literacy compulsory is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. As stated:

‘Media literacy in the digital age is a new type of literacy.’

In Turkey, some of these areas are included in the curriculum, but we see significant differences in how these subjects are taught from school to school. Unfortunately, teacher qualifications, infrastructure, and implementation support are not complementary. As a result, the skills that are important for the digital age remain merely a title in most schools.

So why does the curriculum change so much in Turkey? This is where the real question begins...

In Turkey, the curriculum changes almost every few years. On paper, it's ‘innovation’; in practice, it's ‘uncertainty’. The problem is not that changes are made, but that there is no direction to the change.

This inevitably raises the following questions:

Do these changes truly respond to children's development and the needs of the age?

Or are they superficial adjustments shaped by the political climate and the ideological preferences of the moment?

Are decisions in education based on scientific research, or on agendas set outside the field of education?

Whenever a new curriculum is announced in Turkey, we hear the same rhetoric: ‘The curriculum has been updated.’ However, the question of whether it is the vision or merely the text that has been updated remains unanswered. Frequent changes to the curriculum are not progress; directionless change is instability in education.

Final Word: In Education, It Is Not Change That Matters, But Direction

As I mentioned earlier, these statements are not an idealisation or imitation of the UK, but rather my assessments as someone who has experienced both systems. Reform is being discussed in the UK today because they know what they are changing. Turkey, on the other hand, is still preoccupied with the curriculum because, unfortunately, it does not know where it is going.

In short, the future of education is only possible with a vision that puts the student at the centre.

An approach that does not underestimate art, places literacy at its core, takes digital skills seriously, and most importantly, changes the curriculum not according to political waves but for the benefit of the child...

Perhaps real change is only possible by changing our understanding of education before we start changing the curriculum.