Government puts pressure on French schools

Three weeks before the start of the school year, the Turkish authorities have taken a radical decision: to ban any new registration of Turkish children in the country’s schools covered by the French system of education abroad.

Since dual nationals are also affected, the measure will have an effect on 70% to 80% of the nearly 4,000 students in French education in Turkey, even if those who are already enrolled in an establishment will be able to complete their schooling there. However, changes of establishment, particularly for the transition from nursery to CP, will not be authorized.

“It’s a shock for many families, often on low incomes, who will be penalized, says Marie-Rose Koro, advisor to French people abroad. Contrary to what one might believe, our schools do not only educate the children of the Turkish elite. They also welcome many children from modest families who have returned to Turkey in recent years, but whose parents grew up in France and often feel more French than Turkish and who, thanks to scholarships, can benefit from quality education.

“We are a sovereign state”

For several years, Turkey has required that courses given in French establishments be “compliant” to the official curricula of the Turkish state and that Turkish language, history and civilization courses are taught by teachers appointed by the Turkish Ministry of Education.

However, the courses in the five establishments concerned (the two French high schools in Istanbul and Ankara, two schools in Istanbul and one in Ankara) apply the French National Education program, unlike other French-speaking establishments in the country (such as the prestigious Galatasaray high school in Istanbul), integrated into the Turkish system with programs taken over for several years in the direction of promoting a highly politicized Islam, but also a particular vision of history (such as the Armenian genocide, present in the French programs but totally absent from the Turkish program).

Negotiations between France and Turkey suddenly became tense at the beginning of the summer. “We are not like the countries you colonized. We are a sovereign state.”notably released in the Turkish press the Minister of Education, Yusuf Tekin, denouncing in particular “arrogance” from France.

Turkey wants its schools in France

“If you want to teach here, you will do so on our terms.”he continued, believing that French schools “were created for the children of employees of diplomatic missions, but (that) they began to accept Turkish students”which is “contrary to the law”.

Turkey has long wanted to establish its own schools, something the French government opposes. “Everyone knows that Turkey is in a particular logic. It has turned its back on secularism, which has characterized its history for decades, and it is in a logic of Islamic fundamentalism and extension. We must be totally lucid about this issue and so I am obviously very vigilant.”explained Jean-Michel Blanquer, then Minister of National Education, in 2019.

For Marie-Rose Koro, the urgent task today is to find a solution for the 300 nursery school pupils who were due to return to French schools at the beginning of September. “There is everything: classrooms, teachers… but the registrations taken were retroactively cancelled by the ministry”she explains, while hoping that the good offices of high-ranking Turkish parents of students will bear fruit.

“We would at least like to be able to benefit from continuity between nursery and primary school,” she adds, also vigilant that “any alternative solution, such as distance learning via the CNED, allows scholarship students to continue to benefit from their scholarships”.