Türkiye’s Ministry of National Education has ordered its units to remove obstacles that prevent some foreign-national children from registering at or transferring between schools, according to an official letter signed by Education Minister Yusuf Tekin and reported on Oct. 14.
The letter covers foreign children in general, including those under temporary protection, the status held by most Syrians in Türkiye. According to the ministry, 773,541 foreign-national students from preschool through grade 12 currently have access to education in the country.
Three problems in the system
The letter identifies three specific barriers in e-Okul, the ministry’s national online student registry, which schools use for enrolment, transfers, attendance and grades.
The first concerns families of seasonal agricultural workers. Travel permits issued by the Directorate General of Migration Management allow temporary travel to another province but do not count as a change of address. As a result, children of these families could not be registered in e-Okul in the provinces where their parents were working.
The second affects children born in a province other than where they live who have no record at any address, including their family’s registered one. The system could not register them.
The third concerns sibling transfers. Even when a brother or sister was already enrolled at a school, e-Okul could not access the sibling information, which blocked transfers that would normally be allowed on that basis.
The ministry asked the relevant departments to make arrangements that remove these barriers and ease registration, particularly for travel permit holders and agricultural workers’ children. The letter, as reported, does not set a deadline.
How school registration works for foreigners
In Türkiye, public schools assign pupils largely according to the address registered in the national address-based population system. For foreign residents, that means the address linked to their residence permit and foreigner identification number, which begins with 99. Children of foreigners with valid residence permits, as well as those under international or temporary protection, are entitled to attend state schools free of charge.
Problems often arise when a family’s registered address does not match where they actually live, or when documents are missing. Families who move should update their registered address with the local population directorate before applying to a new school; e-Devlet, the government’s online services portal, can be used to check the address on record.
What families can do
Foreign parents facing registration difficulties can apply to the school principal or the district national education directorate (ilçe milli eğitim müdürlüğü), which handles enrolment disputes. Bringing a residence permit, passport, the child’s previous school records and proof of address usually speeds up the process.
The ministry’s move is aimed mainly at vulnerable groups, but the fixes to sibling transfers and address mismatches could also help expatriate families whose records do not fit standard categories.
Sources
Photo: Meskalam / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
