Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
The Education Ministry hailed the latest educational achievement results as a 'historic success,' reporting that the nation became the fastest-climbing OECD country across all subjects, surpassing average scores in the 2025 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessment of science and reading.
Teachers have begun hunger strikes in a central Ankara park after encountering violent treatment from the police during protests outside the Education Ministry.
The government prepares Blue Homeland bill, the TAF conducted Efes-2026, the Education Ministry used the term the Sea of Islands.
Authorities arrested 16 young leftists who were protesting the deaths of child laborers, many linked to MESEM, Vocational Training Centers run by the Education Ministry.
Allegations of widespread cheating in Turkey’s national High School Entrance Exam (LGS) have triggered a political storm, with opposition figures accusing the Education Ministry of negligence and a cover-up, while Minister Yusuf Tekin has forcefully rejected the claims, using inflammatory language to discredit critics. More than a month after the exam, a senior official from the ministry has been dismissed.
Maarif (Education, noun) is derived from the basal root Arf in Arabic, meaning knowledge. In the Ottoman Empire and early years of the Turkish Republic, the Education Ministry was called “Maarif Vekaleti.” In 1946, Maarif Vekaleti was rebaptized as “Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı,” using the modern Turkish word for both education and ministry and adding the term “national.”