The following is
a summary in English –not a translation- of the article from the newspaper Milliyet which I
cited in a blog post yesterday. I have added some commentary after the summary. Readers are welcome to add
their own comments in either English or Turkish, or to correct my understanding of the original article.
"Oxford" goes to Urfa
Bilkent
University has submitted a draft proposal to the Turkish
government which would allow the establishment of Bilkent private elementary
and high schools in Ankara and in the eastern cities of Erzurum, Malatya, Şanlıurfa
and Van (click on the map to enlarge).
These schools would use Bilkent’s reputation for
quality education as an incentive for professionals to relocate to eastern and
southeastern Turkey to enhance the government’s efforts for development in these regions.
Bilkent proposes that these new schools, referred to as “laboratory
schools” in the article, would be staffed by the best educators and would
implement internationally recognized educational standards, including the
International Baccalaureate, along with a well-rounded program that includes the arts,
sports and community service. As an added bonus, Bilkent proposes that seventy
percent of the students in these schools would receive scholarships, in
contrast to the normal tuition of around 11,000 YTL (approximately 5500 Euro)
which is far beyond the reach of most Turkish families.
The scholarships would be paid for through a special
arrangement for employees of Bilkent University and Bilkent’s
private schools: beginning in 2006, personal income tax remittances from Bilkent
employees would be diverted to a scholarship fund for 25 years.
Commentary by Tom
Readers outside Turkey may not know that Eastern and Southeastern Turkey are significantly less
developed that Western Turkey. The Turkish government has implemented
regional development schemes for these regions such as GAP (where I worked for five years) and DAKP, which comprise large infrastructure projects, incentive programs
for private sector investment, and social development projects. However, due to
the lack of infrastructure currently, security concerns, a net outmigration of
the region’s best talent, and the distance of these regions from the more
developed western regions, development programs have not been able to attract
professionals and businessmen in adequate numbers to reach a cricial mass. Since outside professionals who enter the region to work on development projects usually make commitments of only a few years and often leave their families behind in Istanbul or Ankara, the potential impact of these schools on reversing migration trends is anyone's guess.
The article incorrectly implies that the IB is a European
educational program and reports that IB courses are supplemental to, rather
than coinciding with, the national high school program. The article also says that the new schools will require an IB diploma
for graduation. This sounds extreme to me, since not even the IBO requires candidates to earn a diploma,
and this approach may induce the schools to admit only students who are a sure
bet for a diploma and thus contradict the spirit of the program.
Nevertheless, I
congratulate Bilkent for their determination to cross some internal borders and
use some creativity in pulling together the necessary resources. Far from
feeling threatened by a competitor, I’m encouraged that ideas like this are
making it into the public arena. There are enough places like Urfa for all the
IB schools in Turkey to have such dreams.
I'm generally impressed by the calibre of students in our IB program, and often imagine that these students would be excellent with or without the IB, that we're just helping provide some structure for their genius.
Here's some support for my theory.
