Deepening poverty fuels mass school dropout in Turkey
Children are dropping out of school at unprecedented rates in Turkey, activists warn, as the social toll of the country’s economic turmoil deepens.
ADANA, Turkey — From his impoverished neighborhood in Adana in southern Turkey, 16-year-old Baran travels mostly seven days a week to work on the posh side of the city. He had to drop out of ninth grade to support his struggling parents and help his two younger siblings stay in school, he tells Al-Monitor.
Since May, the teenager has worked at a restaurant specializing in broth and tripe. “My favorite class was math,” he says shyly. “But I have to work to live.”
His parents, Emine and Mehmet, say they are hopeless. Back from a day in the fields collecting tangerines, they brim with anger at the financial despair that has beset the family amid Turkey’s economic turmoil, marked by skyrocketing prices. The country’s annual inflation climbed to a 24-year high of 85.5% in October, according to official figures, and much higher, according to alternative surveys.
“Just the books for three of them cost 1500 liras [$80 dollars],” Mehmet says of his children. With a daily wage of some $15, he complains, even basic groceries are often unaffordable.
