Factors That Have Improved Quality Of Education

I don't know how many times I have written in this column about the need for reform in Turkish education, which is the main factor for the productivity-led growth that is crucially lacking at the moment.

The education indicators in Turkey are quite poor compared to those of developed countries. Let me just compare Turkey with South Korea, which is one the most successful countries in terms of rapidly joining the league of developed countries. The average length of education in Turkey is eight years, while it is close to 12 years in South Korea. There is also a large gap in terms of quality of education. One of the indicators of this factor, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test scores, ranks South Korea as among the best performers, while Turkey is ranked 43rd among 63 countries.

However, research published by Bahçeşehir University's Center for Economic and Social Research (BETAM) last week shows that the quality of education in Turkey is improving and enrollment in schools is increasing. The research by Francisco L. Rivera-Batiz, a prominent scholar in educational economics from Columbia University, and by Mine Durmaz from BETAM studies the PISA scores of Turkey between 2003 and 2012 and tries to answer the following question: Why did PISA test scores rise in Turkey?

Indeed, Turkey's average test score rose from 423 in 2003 to 448 in 2012, the highest increase for any country sampled in this period with the exception of Brazil. As explained in the research, there are multiple factors that may be behind this improvement. The research identifies three groups of factors. The first is the income level of the family. “The socioeconomic background of a student is linked to home resources such as computers, access to the Internet, and greater availability of books, magazines, newspapers and encyclopedias, among others,” say Batiz and Durmaz.

Let me recall at this point that real per capita income increased by more than 60 percent during the period under study in Turkey. Moreover the extra income relatively profited the lowest segments of income distribution more than the highest. The percentage of students in the PISA sample with access to a computer increased from 23.2 percent to 66.7 percent, while those with access to the Internet grew from 14.4 percent to 56.1 percent. Admittedly, the rising per capita income had an important role in these impressive improvements. Let me add that the test scores of students with access to such resources are much higher than the scores of students without.

The second group of factors is related to what happens in schools and classrooms. The authors claim that “the quality of teachers is closely related to student achievement. And, the school's environment -- which is fostered by lower class size, the location of the school and the resources it has available -- is also important.” The research uses a proxy variable in order to determine changes in the quality of teachers, which cannot be observed directly. School directors are asked "to what extent is the learning of students hindered by teachers' low expectations of students in your school?" Four answers are possible: not at all; very little; to some extent; or a lot. It is assumed that “not at all” indicates a better teacher's quality and “a lot” the opposite.

Between 2003 and 2012 PISA surveys reveal sizable changes in this respect: The percentage of “not at all” increased from 13.1 percent to 23.7 percent while the percentage of “a lot” decreased from 24.7 percent to 2.8 percent. Obviously, the quality of teachers improved according to this proxy indicator.

The third group of factors taken into account is the individual characteristics of a student. “The student's personal attitudes and motivation, and his or her overall behavior also have a big impact on learning and achievement,” state the authors. In this field the developments are not promising at all. The authors observe a rise in student absenteeism and truancy. The authors believe a worsening of attitudes in schools may reflect lower motivation and the increasing proportion of retained students in a given grade. As expected, this worsening had an adverse effect on test scores.

As for the answer to the question of why PISA test scores in Turkey rose, the decomposition analysis by the authors finds that half of the improvement are due to rising incomes, while the other half is due to effects like improvements in the quantity and quality of schools serving low-income families, larger enrollment and rising teacher quality.

SEYFETTİN GÜRSEL (Cihan/Today's Zaman)