Marketing hope: Private institutions preparing students for the university entrance examination in Turkey

Abstract

In Turkey, almost all high school graduates take private courses in order to be successful in the university entrance examination. The application of students for entering an institution of higher education is decided based on their rank in the examination results. One of the unintended outcomes of this measurement process is that high school education is overshadowed by the “examination event” and becomes for all intents and purposes dysfunctional. This chapter discusses the contradictions arising from an increasing dependency on private university preparatory institutions within the framework of public responsibility where education is conceptualized as a fundamental right. Turkish “private preparation courses” are analyzed in terms of their characteristics, which deepen the preexisting inequalities of the educational system and as a result their function as an instrument of “normalizing judgment.”

Citation

Gök, F. (2010), "Marketing hope: Private institutions preparing students for the university entrance examination in Turkey", Karin Amos, S. (Ed.) International Educational Governance (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 123-134. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3679(2010)0000012009