We proved ourselves with a developed curriculum and international comparative education experience and have become Turkey’s global education brand,” Maarif Foundation Chairman Professor Birol Akgun.
Akgün mentioned that they have over 5,000 personnel around the world, including 500 teachers, administrators and technical staff from Turkey. Teachers and administrators gained great experience by Maarif Foundation’s education activities abroad, he said.
Maarif Foundation has 33,000 students but this number only indicates the quantity, said Akgün.
The foundation cares about quality education and for that reason it has prepared the 2020-2023 period strategic plan to be implemented starting from the next term, he added.
One of the indicators of education quality is placement rate and our school’s success rises steadily, he said. “We have a rising success trend in all Maarif schools either in our new established schools or the ones linked to Gülenist Terror Group [FETÖ].”
Based on the statistics about the placement of alumni, the success ratio is around 90-100% in some of the schools, he added.
While the Maarif Foundation has representatives in 55 countries, it has also made official contact with 99 countries for educational activities. It educates more than 30,000 students at 272 schools in 33 countries. The foundation has also signed protocols with 43 countries and is soon planning to start educational activities. It also runs 36 dormitories in different countries. Alongside opening new schools worldwide, the Maarif Foundation has been taking control of FETÖ-linked educational institutions after the group orchestrated a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, killing 251 people and injuring nearly 2,200 others.
NGO TO HELP TURKISH MIGRANTS ACCESS HIGHER EDUCATION
Turkey’s Maarif Foundation, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) running schools abroad, turned its attention to low university attendance among children of Turkish migrant families across the world. To boost the number of Turkish-origin students at universities in Europe and North America, the foundation is setting up “education centers.” Officials say rates of Turkish youth from migrant families attending universities in Europe, the United States and Canada, is around 3%.
The centers function as prep schools for students looking to sit exams for university. They also function as places to address cultural, language and identity needs of Turkish expatriates’ children, Akgün says. The first centers were opened in France and Austria and have seen huge demand. Currently, 450 students attend the center in Austria and Akgün says they will open two more centers in two other European countries by the end of 2019. Maarif will gradually roll out centers in other countries with high Turkish populations, from Germany to Belgium and Canada.
