It is emphasized in Article 42 of the 1982 Constitution and Article 28 of the Children’s Rights Convention signed by Turkey that education is the right of every child and that it should be free and open to everyone on the basis of equal opportunity, regardless of gender. Foreign students who are under Temporary Protection in Turkey also have the right to study in public schools. For registration in public schools, a Temporary Protection Identity document and an address statement are required. A student can only enroll in the school closest to his/her residence address. Together with the documents, the registration process is carried out by submitting an application to the administrative unit of the relevant school.

Student attendance at school is a condition for a child to follow the annual education plan. The requirement for unjustified absence from school has been determined as 20 days by the Ministry of National Education. Absence can only be accepted under the following conditions by submitting the necessary documents to the administration: In case of illness or an emergency (such as a funeral). On the other hand, it is not right not to send your child to school for reasons such as birthdays, shopping, taking care of other children, small family events or to fall a sleep. Doctor and other health appointments for your child should coincide with either before or after school or school holidays.

The equivalence procedures of the children under Temporary Protection are carried out on certain dates by the grade upgrade examination conducted by the school administration.

Public schools offer toll transportation services with contracted service companies. In addition, within the scope of the PICTES project for students under Temporary Protection, shuttle support can be provided according to the request of the school, if the student is at least 2 km away from the school, if the student has a special condition, and if the number of students who need free shuttle service at the school is 10 or more.

In order to determine the Turkish proficiency of foreign students in order to transfer to the university in Turkey, a TÖMER exam is conducted at the first stage, and then a Foreign Student Exam (YÖS) is applied. YÖS applications are announced on the website of the relevant university at the dates determined by the universities themselves. When preparing for YÖS, students’ General Ability and their proficiency in Mathematics are measured. There are also universities that accept students with a high school diploma, for this, students must follow the announcements on the university pages.

In order to contribute to the access and social adaptation of children under Temporary Protection to education in Turkey, the European Union-supported PICTES project by the Ministry of Education is being implemented in certain schools. Turkish language education, academic equivalence with their peers through capture courses, support of special needs students in such subjects as educational materials and services, and strengthening their adaptation to school are carried out by guidance counselors, Turkish trainers, and Syrian instructors assigned to schools within the scope of the project.

The need for special education is determined according to the results of the evaluation and reports of the Psychiatry and Guidance Research Center (RAM in Turkish) after the detection of classroom guidance counselors and school psychological counselors of schools. According to the reports received, the student is placed in the appropriate classroom or educational institution.

The strong relationship between school-parent-child significantly affects the educational life of the child. As parents, you can have meetings with the classroom teacher about the academic situation of the child or with the school counselor about the child’s adaptation to school and personal problems by regularly attending the parent meetings held at the schools. The most important barrier to communication with the school for parents of foreign students is the language barrier. If you are unable to contact the school, you can apply to the relevant association’s psychological counselor.

In order to support foreign students in their Turkish language skills, the Ministry of National Education is opening adaptation classes in schools in the PICTES project. In addition, if your child cannot participate in adaptation classes, you can support your child’s language skills by enrolling in the ÇOGEM Turkish courses. On the other hand, an important factor in supporting language skills is the active use of the language that is desired to be acquired in social relations. In this context, you can support your child’s communication and relationship with his peers and encourage him to speak Turkish at home.