Our reality for The Turkish Youth anda Their Educations in Foreign Countries (1)

What happened in the last ten years that the primary goal of all our young people was to go abroad? This is the question on my mind for a long time…

In the past, we would not go abroad to study, work or live, we would not think of another city or even leave our neighborhood. Both our families and we used to complete our entire education process in the neighborhood schools closest to our home, and enjoyed walking to and from school until almost the university period. Of course, back then, we had neither a car at our door nor a service vehicle available for service. Maybe if the school is a little far from home, we would take our breath away at the bus stop and wait for the Pasha Pasha municipality bus to come.

When the university time came, one side of us encouraged to leave our families and go to other cities with the idealism, independence and sense of freedom given by the youth, while the other side would still want to evaluate the schools in our own city or nearby cities and stay in our safe area. Our families, on the other hand, even though they logically support us to be men and break our bread, they prefer us to be with them from the heart when it comes to being abroad.

At that time, the concept of this school, this school did not exist. If you say a private school or a private university, it was a handful of numbers. Every school had the same credibility in basic education. You would get satisfactory education from those schools, and you would pass the exams of the schools you wanted. A good teacher meant an idealistic teacher. Our public schools were filled with idealistic teachers. If you know your responsibilities as a student and study for your lesson, every school is good, every teacher was beneficial to you. Teachers would try to dedicate their students, and parents would say "I am your flesh and bone" to the teachers to whom they delivered their children. School administrations would not say to parents, "Your child is not suitable for this school, he cannot attend this school, please take him" as in the present time.

A lot has changed since then. It would not be an exaggeration to say that our perception of education has been touched by a magic wand. Neither the school nor the teacher liked it, and we found the curriculum and the document insufficient. Our mind, which is always looking for the better, has always been showing us different aspects, other teachers, different schools, different understandings of education, with a great sense of anxiety and dissatisfaction. As a matter of fact, the ruthless control of national education, educational approach and examination system on children was the beginning of the result. When private schools, which provide better education, have more experienced and idealistic teachers, have better physical conditions and equipment, they have become the reason for preference, especially for families with suitable income.

While the preference of private schools grew like an avalanche, the schools that appealed to various income groups increased like a spring. The National Education System suddenly found itself faced with an equivalent special education system that was close to its own size. This situation continued over the years, with the private schools rapidly falling apart in terms of education quality, and parents' preferences in favor of private schools. The youth, who received good education with good opportunities, began to see the world more globally. This awareness of being a world person turned into a desire to cross borders and to go to other countries, to study, to study or to continue living there. This fire, lit by well-educated young people, flared up within two or three years to find scholarships for young people who are studying in public schools and who are not financially available to study abroad, or by getting a scholarship from the school itself.

The situation came to such a point that when they went to bed at night, almost all young people began to have a dream of abroad in their minds and dreams. Whatever he did, no matter what price he paid, he was bound to go abroad...

The situation of the parents was very different. Was this youth with shining eyes on the right track? Did these adults, who usually know Turkish workers who went to Germany to work years ago, fully understand another side of going abroad? When the arrow was about to leave the bow, did he have the experience needed to encourage or pull his child down this path? How should she decide and parent? A great uncertainty and contradiction had already filled his mind. Regardless of his educational background, he still couldn't see the big picture. Almost all of them, even those who are university graduates, had already studied in Turkey.

A lot of terms and concepts he didn't know were floating in the air. For the first time, he felt inadequate in guiding…

What to do, where to start?

(To be continued)