Hands off my child, Turks tell government - AL-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Turkish children sing the national anthem before their lesson at a school in Hatay April 2, 2012. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY - Tags: SOCIETY) - RTR309SU

Subscribe for less than $9/month to access this story and all Al-Monitor reporting.

OR

Create an account for a 7-day trial to access this article and all of AL-Monitor.

By entering your email, you agree to receive ALM's daily newsletter and occasional marketing messages.

Why AL-Monitor?

AL-Monitor is an award-winning media outlet covering the Middle East, valued for its independence, diversity and analysis. It is read widely by US, international and Middle East decision makers at the highest levels, as well as by media, thought and business leaders and academia.

Read by

Live news & notifications

Follow over 100 expert journalists based across the region and get notified in real time of breaking stories and exclusives. *Expanded coverage on Energy & Defense sectors.

Premier analysis of the Middle East

Access the sharpest and most diverse regional minds giving you all the angles on regional trends.

Live events & video

Priority access to roundtables, summits and other events alongside ALM's global community of regional influencers.

Specialized Newsletters

Get timely reporting on key countries and sectors with up to 10 daily and weekly newsletters straight to your inbox.

Big, exclusive interviews

Follow conversations with the region's biggest names in politics and business.

ALM archives since 2012

Access a repository of over a decade's worth of regional coverage, insights and trends.

Turkish children sing the national anthem before their lesson at a school in Hatay April 2, 2012. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY - Tags: SOCIETY) - RTR309SU

Subscribe for unlimited access

By becoming an Al-Monitor subscriber, you drive our team’s rigorous and independent journalism spanning the Middle East.

Continue

High school students wearing Guy Fawkes masks take part in a protest against the education policies of the ruling AK Party as a tram drives by in Istanbul February 13, 2015. Education is the latest flashpoint between the administration of President Tayyip Erdogan, and secularist Turks who accuse him of overseeing creeping 'Islamisation' in the NATO member state. Parts of some regular schools have been requisitioned to create more places for students in "Imam Hatip" religious schools championed by Erdogan, w

Turkish judiciary halts school firings

Tulay Cetingulec

Tulay Cetingulec

Students, parents left in dark as Turkey scraps school entrance exam

Ayla Jean Yackley

Ayla Jean Yackley

Turkish girls attend a class at the Kazim Karabekir Girls' Imam-Hatip School in Istanbul February 10, 2010. The imam-hatip network is a far cry from the western stereotype of the madrassa as an institution that teaches the Koran by rote and little else. Originally founded to educate Muslim religious functionaries in the 1920s, the imam-hatip syllabus devotes only around 40 percent of study to religious subjects like Arabic, Islamic jurisprudence and rhetoric. The rest is given over to secular topics. To ma

Erdogan's reforms meant to educate 'pious generation'

Orhan Kemal Cengiz

Orhan Kemal Cengiz

Students of Tevfik Ileri Imam Hatip School eat and chat during a break in Ankara November 18, 2014. Turkey has seen a sharp rise in religious schooling under reforms which President Tayyip Erdogan casts as a defence against moral decay, but which opponents see as an unwanted drive to shape a more Islamic nation. Almost a million students are enrolled in "imam hatip" schools this year, up from just 65,000 in 2002 when Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party first came to power, he told the opening of one of the s

Erdogan Islamizes education system to raise 'devout youth'

Kadri Gürsel