Nine percent of high school students in the nation choose to continue their education via distance learning, where they do not physically attend school and carry out all tests and learning activities remotely, as this choice has expanded in recent years, local media has revealed.
Although online university education has been prevalent in Turkey for a very long time, it has begun to expand among high school students as well.
Adults who left schooling for various reasons generally choose remote high school education. There are diverse reasons for pupils under 18 to select distance learning.
According to the newspaper Milliyet, the primary motivation is to better prepare for university examinations by allocating all the time that students would spend attending school in official education to courses and private lessons.
Furthermore, under Turkey’s university admissions system, a student's total score is determined by their high school GPA.
Since distance learning examinations are substantially simpler than conventional school exams, individuals who study remotely may attain a better GPA.
Education Specialist Salim Ünsal remarked that students, especially from prominent institutions, frequently worry about not attaining good marks, which encourages them to opt for distant learning to prepare for tests more easily.
Ünsal underlined that even students from top-level institutions are selecting this method.
The subject of why we cannot retain these youngsters in schools should be at the forefront. The grading system should be fairer.
According to Education Ministry figures, in the 2006–2007 academic year, there were 566,967 students in distance learning. In the 2021–2022 academic year, this number grew to 1,738,198 pupils.