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IN TURKEY

Situated on both Europe and Asia, Turkiye is a gateway between these two continents, The European and Asian sides are divided by the Istanbul Boğazı (Bosporus),

Turkey is ruled by democracy and has a population of 72 million. Majority of its population is youngsters.

Education in Turkey is governed by a national system which was established in accordance with the Atatürk Reforms after the Turkish War of Independence. It is a state supervised system designed to produce a skillful professional class for the social and economic institutes of the nation.

Children are obliged to take 8 years of primary education between the ages of 7 and 15, and by 2001 enrollment of children in this age range was nearly 100%. For 14-18 year olds, four or more years of high school education are required in order to then progress to higher education.

Annually, about 1.5 million students graduate from Turkish high schools. About 95% of students attend public schools, but inadequacies of the public system increasingly motivates middle-class parents to seek private education.

By 2010 there were over 100 universities in Turkey. Except for the Open Education Faculty

at Anadolu University, entrance is regulated by a national examination, ÖSS, after which high school graduates are assigned to university according to their performance.

High school lasts 4 years, with some high schools having an additional year of preparatory classes in a foreign language. The different kinds of high schools of the Turkish education system include:

Public High Schools, the standard type; Anatolian High Schools which traditionally provided more lessons in a selected foreign language (English, German or French), although the language program has been substantially reduced since 2006; Imam-Hatip High Schools which have more lessons about religion and Arabic;

Science High Schools focusing on science education; Social Sciences High Schools, Teacher High Schools, Police and Military High Schools, Vocational Schools, which focus on a certain type of profession (such as Tourism Vocational High Schools, Industrial Vocational High Schools,

Electrical Vocational High Schools; Private High Schools, which further

departmentalize into the aforementioned systems of state schools. As of 2007, there are 7934 High Schools in Turkey

The lessons taught in high schools' 9th and 10th grades are:

Turkish language, Turkish literature, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geometry, Turkish History, Geography, a foreign language (in most cases English), a second foreign language (most commonly German but could be French, Italian, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, or Chinese),

When students enter the 10th grade, they used to choose one of four tracks: Turkish language–Mathematics, Science, Social Sciences, and Languages. In Vocational High Schools, no tracks are offered, while in Science High Schools only the Science tracks are offered. There will be no tracks as of the 2010-2011 Educational Year according to the decision of Turkish Ministry of National Education

At the end of high school, following the 12th grade, students take a High School Finishing Examination and they are required to pass this in order to take the university entrance exam and continue their studies at a university. Exam scores are weighted to provide students in each track with different opportunities when entering higher education, as follows:

After the national university entrance examination organized by the national examing body students, if they succeed, continue with their studies at a university.

Universities provide either two or four years of education for undergraduate studies, while graduate programs last a minimum of two years. Some universities also ask for an additional year of English preparatory study to be completed before the start of studies, unless an exemption examination is passed.

The quality of education at the Turkish universities varies greatly, some providing education and facilities on par with internationally renowned schools (the technical universities are often compared with universities in the United States, and are regularly visited by the U.S. Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and their engineering programs deemed substantially equivalent to comparable programs in the U.S..

Currently, religious education courses begin at the 4th grade of primary school and continues throughout secondary and high schools. From the 4th to the 8th grade, classes consist of two hours per week. At the high school level, there is one hour of class per week Thus, a student who has graduated from high school receives 8 continuous years of religion courses. There are no fixed books for the course.

Rather, each school decides which book to follow—provided that the book for each level is approved by the Ministry of Education. Nearly half of the content of these courses concerns religion and Islam (whom majority are Muslims) with remaining topics ranging from secularism to humanism and from ethical values to etiquette. The major world religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism are included in the content of the course.

The most common foreign language is English, which in public schools is taught from 4th grade (age 10) onwards through to the end of high school. In high school a second foreign language is introduced.

However the number of lessons given in public schools is minimal compared to private colleges, which begin teaching English in kindergarten, have two or three times as many English lessons in the timetable, and in many cases employ native speakers of English as teachers.

As a result of the poor standards achieved by the public system many students take an intensive English language "prep year" when entering university. These are offered by both state and private universities throughout Turkey

Kocaeli is mostly known by its district center, Izmit. The ancient name of the city is Nikomedia. Remains from Roman and Byzantine times may be seen here, among which are the citadel, the Temple of Augustus and the agora.

The city of Izmit is mainly an industrial center in Marmara region of Turkey with numerous industrial establishments surrounding the Gulf of Izmit. However, there are also many tourist sites in this bustling province. Kartepe is a winter sports resort that reaches a height of 1600 m, Kerpe and Kefken on the Black Sea coast have fine beaches, while Golcuk and Karamursel in the Gulf of Izmit are other beautiful sea resorts.

At Arpalik near the Eskihisar village in the Gulf of Izmit, there is a yacht berth place with a capacity of 60-80 yachts. Lake Sapanca in nearby Sakarya province is another natural beauty and a scenic place ideal for picnics. One of the towns of Kocaeli is Hereke, where the very best Turkish carpets are produced. The artistic carpets of Ottoman palaces were woven here only for the sultans. These carpets are priceless and well-known all over the world.

In 1999 August 17th, a terrible earthquake (7.4 Richter scale) hit the city at 03:02 local time while everybody was asleep and devastated the city and killed almost 10,000 people. It took the authorities many weeks before they could clean the rubble. Apart of the heavy loss of lives there was also a terrible loss in the economy as this city is the most industrialized area of Turkey.

Special Education; Providing to special children with the

unique needs, Providing to high talent children in order

to reach and use their potential, Preventing the disabilities in order not

to convert obstacle, Preparing the disabled individuals as

self-sufficiency in order to socialize and ensure independent productive in their society with their special talents,

Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities, Individuals with HearingDisabilities, Individuals with Visual Disabilities, Individuals with Orthopedic Disabilities, Individuals having difficulty in Tongue and Speaking, Individuals having difficulty in Special Learning, Individuals having difficulty in Emotional, Behavioral,

and Social Compliance,  Individuals showing Autistic Properties, Individuals having a high intelligence  and skill, Individuals showing lack of attention and hyperactivity

defect,

There is a special education class for visually impaired students in our school

Visually impaired special class has continued to education and training with eight students for three year

OUR VISUAL IMPAIRED STUDENTS ARE FAIRLY ACTIVE IN SOCIAL DOMAIN AS

WELL AS SHOWING SUCCESS IN THEIR ACADEMIC FIELDS.

Şehit Selçuk Primary School was opened

in the academic year 2006-2007

under the name of Yenişehir Primary School

Our school is located in one of the developing areas of Izmit. Many students come from immigrant families from the eastern part of Turkey,and most of their mothers are housewives with only primary education in their background.

Our school has 839 students with 28 classes, an IT classroom,a library and a Science &Technology Lab. And kindergarten classes.

Another important feature of the school is that it has a special class for the blind students and one specially-trained teacher.Some of the parents of these students will take part in the project activities,too.

The region where we live is called Marmara,and it is

considered the largest of the 7 regions in Turkey,in terms of

industrialization and population

Our city has 1500000 inhabitants.Each year the

population increases mainly because of he strong industries.

Teachers the new Generation

will be your devotion

http://www.meb.gov.tr http://www.yok.gov.tr http://www.iskur.gov.tr http://www.teksav.org http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/

connect/BBC_First_Click_Course_Leaders_Guide.pdf