DEVELOPMENT OF PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION

AND TRAINING OF TEACHERS AND

ADMINISTRATORS IN TURKEY.
Proff. Dr. Ayla Oktay
Ass. Prof. Rengin Zembat,
Department of Early Childhood Education
Atatiirk Faculty of Education
Marmara University, Turkey.
************
Based on a ｾ｡ｰ･ｲ presented at the 11 World Congress on Child Education and Training, University of
Malaga, Spam September 20-23 1994 (Ed).

language and social and emotional

INTRODUCTION.
As happens to be the case in a lot of
countries in the world, formal pre-school
education in Turkey started in the second
half of the 19th century and at the
beginning of the 20th century
At first, these attempts consisted mainly of
providing accommodation for orphans and
establishing charity foundations, which
would provide them with food and
sometimes medical care. Later on, this
system became much more organised when
it was included under the umbrella of the
public services of the Ministry of
Education. When the regulations prepared
by this Ministry came into effect in 1914
1915, pre-school education attained a
considerably organised status.
Nevertheless, an unfortunate coincidence
the sudden outbreak of the First World
War, followed by the Turkish War of
Independence, curbed the speed of
development in all institutions of education
and pre-school education too got its share
of the unfavourable conditions. Some of
them even closed down.
Definition and Objectives of Pre-school
Education in Turkey.
The objectives are stated in the Basic Law
of National Education.
- To give support to the entire development
of the child i.e. psychomotor, intellectual,
development.- To prepare the child for
primary education.
To supply the full-time working parents
with safe and secure child care.
To support children who are from socio-
culturally disadvantaged environments.
Today, in Turkey the 0-6 year old child
population is about 8,000,000. It is mainly
the family's responsibility to educate
children during early childhood. Recently,
there has been a great increase in the
number of pre-school institutions although
it is a fact that the number of the existing
creches, kindergartens and nursery schools
is far from meeting the demand.
Types of Pre-school Institutions
The existing pre-school institutions are run
under various names. They are established
either by the Ministry of National
Education or Social Welfare and Child
Care General Directorate, or by the private
sector with permission from these two
authorities. These can be classified:
Ministry of Education -Nursery schools,
infant classes and preparatory classes;
Social Welfare and Childcare - creches,
nurseries, children's clubs, preschool centres
opened by various businesses and by
universities for developing facilities for their
education departments jar practice and
curriculum development.
Even this simple classification can
illustrate the difference among the

62
institutions. Although research on this issue
is neither definitive nor comprehensive,
according to the results of limited ones, it
is possible to distinguish certain categories,
such as those where the child is taken care
of physically, those which prepare the
child for primary school whereas there
exist some where the child's characteristics
are taken into consideration, where he is
given support to become self confident and
creative. There are even some institutions
where in education the principles of
famous educationalists such as Dewey,
Montessori Froebel, Piaget etc. are
followed. In a study carried out in Istanbul
on the education techniques applied, it has
been observed that children's ages and
levels of intellectual development are taken
into consideration and activities are
arranged compatible with the existing
equipment. Moreover, programme planning
and educational activities are prepared and
applied mostly by teachers (Oktay et a1.
1994).
Developments in the number of Pre-
school Institutions.
According to statistical evidence, it can be
said that during the last 50-60 years, there
has been an increase in the number of pre-
school institutions. The increase may be
due to factors like
- women's great participation in the business
world;
urbanisation;
the increased level of women's education
and
the demand for starting education at an
early age.

Table 1: Types and Number of Pre-school Institutions in Turkey*

Type of Institution Number Number Number

of of of
Schools Teachers Students

Self Governing Nursery 35 263 3115

Infant classes (attached to a Primary School) 4104 7058 116246
Practice classes (Vocational High School) 339 1112 9348
Infant classes (Attached Special School) 5 11 85
Private Nursery Schools 160 248 3801
Private Nursery classes 106 \63 2870
Foundation of Social Welfare & Childcare
Creches & Daycare Centres 28 0 2687
Nurseries 66 0 \804
**Creches & Daycare Centres (Attached
to Factories & Busineses) 262 0 17321

Total 5105 8855 157277

* 14 Milli Egitim Surast II azirlik Dokumant, Milli Egitim Bakanligt Ankara, 1993
** Foundation of Social Welfare & Childcare 1989 Data

But even today the schooling rate in Pre- Training of Teachers for the Pre-school
school education is still 5.4% Educational Institutions.
In the educational institutions the most

63
effective element is the teacher whose Universities.
most important task is to assist families to
educate their children. What is expected Although the curricula of the pre-school
from the teacher is both extensive and teacher training departments of universities
complex when compared with the show some differences across the country,
requirements of other professions. the general knowledge subjects are as
follows:
The teacher in a pre-school educational Turkish, Principles ofAtaturk and History
institution is the first adult the child meets of Reforms, A modern language as fine arts
apart from family members. She/he helps subject students ｾＱｵ､ｹ［ Physical Education,
the child trust the people outside the home. Music and Art, Child Psychology, Child
In other words, the teacher is one of the Development, Nutrition, Creativity, Curr-
iculum, Mental Health etc are studied as
most important people who has a great
professional subjects.
influence on children's early life.
In addition to these subjects there is a
Since 1982, the Higher Education Council
requirement of field study throughout the
has undertaken the control of an teacher
2nd 3rd and 4th years of the university
training institutions. In 1987 for the first
education in all teacher training courses,
time a pre-school teacher training main
practised in government and private sector
branch attached to Ataturk Faculty of
pre-school institutions. The practical work
Education within Marmara University was
is a must since through it the theoretical
established to train teachers for pre-school
knowledge and skills are transformed into
institutions. This programme offered a two
behavioural patterns. Such training enables
year undergraduate diploma course. The
teachers to be successful both in academic
period of education at this school was
work and as practising teachers. At present,
extended to 4 years in 1991-1992 academic
graduates of "Child Development and
year. Since then, there has been a separate
Education Departments" of the Vocational
department in Marmara University for the
Schools for Girls, work together at pre-
first time. Therefore pre-school teachers
school educational institutions. They are
primary education teachers and secondar;
under the supervision of the graduates of
school teachers have begun to be trained
the related departments of the universities.
in the same faculty, i.e. Ataturk Faculty of
Education, University of Marmara while
The extension of the education period of
other pre-school teacher training courses
pre-school teacher training schools from 2
are mostly attached to vocational training
to 4 years is an important development for
facilities or, as in Hacettepe University for
Turkey. It means that children who are
example, they are attached to the school of
highly vulnerable to external dangers or
Home Economics giving bachelor degrees.
wrong approaches are educated by teachers
This approach was adapted by other
who are knowledgable in child
universities, thus speeding up the
development and child psychology and
establishment of pre-school teacher training
have adequately developed behavioural
departments.
patterns to deal with problem cases.
The opportunities of graduate study for
At present, to be able to teach at any level
academic personnel and teachers of pre-
of education, it is a prerequisite to graduate
school education were offered by pre-
at least from a 2 year teacher training
school graduate programmes within
college.
Bogazici, Hacettepe and Marmara

64
According to the law governing the
educational system, 2 year undergraduate
courses have been held for kindergarten
teachers during summer months. A lot of
teachers have been trained in these courses
and received the diploma of undergraduate
study, but this scheme still does not reach
everybody working in the field.
In order to achieve the prospective goals in
education, it is of great importance to train
highly qualified teachers and this can be
done by training present practising teachers
in continuous in-service training
programmes together with recruiting the
new teachers who are ambitious,
enthusiastic and skilful.
These points were discussed in detail in
the 14th National Education Assembly in
Sept. 1993. The assembly adopted the
following principles in the training of
teachers:
Vocational guidance services should be
reinforced in secondary schools, thus the
qualified and enthusiastic students can be
guided towards pre-school teaching:
Ministry of National Education should
cooperate with other institutions in order to
familiarise society with the teaching
profession:
The selection of the candidates is very
important so necessary alterations should be
made to the University Entrance
Examinations so that those who are really
talented should be accepted to these courses.
In order to apply similar programmes at
equal standards there should be studies on
curriculum development, with the
collaboration of the Universities and the
Ministry of Education:
Every pre-school department should have
a pre-school unit for practice:
There should be cooperation between the
Ministry of Education and Institutions, to
make job analysis for the persons who will be
employed in pre-school institutions:
All the staff should be given in-service
training:
There should be state support to the
65
private sector in order to spread pre-school
institutions all over the country. Also
standards of education and inspection should
be under the supervision of the Ministry of
Education:
There should be more opportunities for
graduate studies either at home or abroad:
When these ideas are applied and put into
practice the candidates will receive more
qualified education. In this way the teaching
profession will become the carrier of open
minded, knowledgable, skilful candidates, who
will have the responsibility of raising new
generations and who are able to help national
development as well as contribute to the
protection of the world.
(MEB 1993, pp32-33)
ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK
OF PRE-SCHOOL OR INSTITUTIONS
& ITS FUNCTIONING.
In the functioning of Pre-school institutions
principles of management and its
application are of great importance. The
basic hierarchical structure of these
institutions can be outlined as
administrators, pupils and parents.
In Turkey today, academic courses at
graduate and/or undergraduate level, are
not available to give training to prospective
administrators, to deal with pre-school
administration. Nevertheless, during their
graduate studies, students have courses
on "General Educational Administration"
and in the newly started courses, on
"Administration in Pre-school institutions".
Since pre-school institutions are small
business organisations, professional
administrators are not very common in
them.
In such institutions there is a simple
hierarchical structure- Starting with the
General Director of Pre-school Education
or the General Director of Social Welfare
and Childcare, it passes to either the
Headmaster or School Owner, in the case
of private schools, and devolves to the
 teachers, pupils personnel and parents.
This simple structure demands that there is
a detailed job description to clarify
responsibilities, adjust the operation of
decision making and the inspection
mechanism. Yet, it is also not always
possible to implement this system in such
Figure 2: Personal Relationships among Individuals
In Pre-school Education Institutions.
General Directorate
The establishment of the Pre-school
General Directorate within the education
system, has brought in new features.
Beginning with the Ministry of National
Education, there follows the General
Directorate of Pre-school, a National
Education Directorate of Local Authority,
with a fourth tier of Assistants to the
Director in Guidance and Administration,
Curriculum Development and Inspection
and Educational Promotion.
A comprehensive study carried out in
Istanbul, researching to determine the
qualitative features of administrators has
produced the following data:
66
small institutions. Clear-cut definitions in
the hierarchical spectrum of decisive
authority and responsibilities have vital
importance in the survival and profitability
of the institution. Here, among staff
members there exists a different
relationship from other educational
institutions. All kinds of contacts among
individuals should be direct and
straightforward.
Most of them are women;
M ＰｾＱ of them are graduates of university
departments such as psychology, pedagogy,
child development or Pre-school education;
some are graduates of engineering,
architecture or business administration.
Theoretically, the qualitative features of
pre-school administrators comprise such
personal attributes as;
effective verbal communication;
responsibility;
skill in persuading others;
self confidence,'
maturity;
dependability & honesty;
adaptability in situations;
 skill in planning & organisation &
inspection;
knowledge of administration, child
development & nutrition.
The study mentioned above has given the
following data concerning personal
attributes of administrators.
They are good at verbal communication,
but not very effective in persuading others.
It has been observed that their personal
characteristics are strongly affected by the
level and type of education and the place
of work.
48% of the chosen sample answered
questions on the Developmental Skills
Questionnaire positively. In the section on
evaluating knowledge on nutrition, there
were 72% positive answers. The results
have shown that 78% of the administrators
have had no training in administration and
those who have had attended a one
semester course.
Conclusively, this study highlights the
necessity of education on School
Administration and has clearly pointed out
that the administrators need support both
for both self-promotion and raising their
standards of education in this field. The
easiest solution to this lies in offering them
opportunities to have in-service training.
CONCLUSION.
We have tried to present how, since the
beginning of the 20th century, pre-school
education in Turkey has begun to be
considered as an important issue within the
network of the educational organisation,
which has been in a state of continuous
*******************
67
improvement and reform.
Not only have state and private sectors
been making serious efforts to raise the
standards and increase the number of such
institutions, but also the universities have
made an outstanding contribution to pre-
school education. They take an active part
in this area by giving service in teacher
training, training of academics and in-
service training and also by giving
importance to extensive research in this
field.
Although, in general, efforts are directed to
and concentrated on the institutionalising
of pre-school education, there is also a
parallel development reinforcing the main
line, namely the activities carried on by
mass-media, radio, T.V. press and by
means of some special projects and adult
education courses for the family. Here,
objectives are to raise awareness of issues
in pre-school education and provide
enlightenment, in other words to educate
the family.
Ta ensure a better future for both the
country and the world, concerted efforts
are being made to supply the best
organised and conscious support to
children at this early, vulnerable period in
their lives, using methods which depend on
scientific principles and the most recent
developments.
REFERENCES.
A full and comprehensive list of references
in Turkish is available on application.