Education has become one of the Turkish government’s main playgrounds. Over the past 13 years, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has had five education ministers, with the incumbent, Nabi Avci, presiding over arguably the most chaotic era Turks have ever seen in the education system.
Last year, Avci introduced the Transition from Elementary to Secondary Education (TEOG) system, which involves a centralized nationwide exam and is intended to determine which high schools students attend after 8th grade. In the ensuing confusion, many students found themselves at imam-hatip religious schools — which teach the Quran and train Muslim clergy — usually against their wishes. Even the grandson of Turkey’s Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva landed in an imam-hatip school, which was not even in Istanbul but in a district outside the city. Outraged parents, whose children were placed in schools dozens of miles away from their homes, launched a campaign called "Hands off my child."