Free education in Turkey is a thing of the past! No hygiene, no janitors, but mandatory donations

Education in Turkey is no longer free.

Starting from kindergarten, parents are forced to pay registration fees that begin at 20,000 liras when enrolling their children in school.

Yet, education is a constitutional right. It is a service that the state is required to provide free of charge.

However, citizens are being forced to pay money under the guise of 'donations'—equivalent to a minimum wage—to educate their children, despite paying their taxes down to the last penny and doing their part at every opportunity.

Moreover, the problem is not limited to registration fees.

Toilets in schools cannot be cleaned, and cleaning supplies are unavailable. In many places, teachers and parents are trying to maintain school hygiene together.

Parents are given a massive list, ranging from toilet paper to A4 paper, and from detergent to sponges—every type of essential supply…

Naturally, the following questions become inevitable: Why is the Ministry of National Education, which has a massive budget, unable to provide even the most basic necessity of cleaning supplies?

And how can quality education be expected from teachers who are burdened with such loads?

The anxiety in the minds of parents is even deeper: “If we don't pay this money, will our child's education be negatively affected? Will the teachers or school administration take a different attitude?”

So much so that even the most searched questions on Google today serve as evidence of this collapse…

“Is school registration money legal?”

“Is the school fee mandatory?”

“What happens if school registration money is not paid?”

“How much is the first-grade registration fee?”

“Can school money be refunded?”

Every year, the Ministry of National Education makes the same statement: “There is no registration fee in any school of the Republic of Turkey, and mandatory donations cannot be collected.”

But nothing has changed.

School administrations continue to insist on demanding registration fees.

The words of Veli-Der President Ömer Yılmaz summarize the situation:

“These fees are not legal. If they are being demanded, you must report it to the Ministry of National Education, CİMER, or us. These fees should not be paid.”

The truth is stark; the education system in Turkey has collapsed.

Citizens cannot access their most basic right to free education.

And this picture stands before us as the most striking indicator of the collapse occurring not only in education but in many areas of the country.