Disadvantages and solutions of a model in asylum seeker education: Temporary education centers (TECs)

Abstract

The violence, and instability because of civil war in Syria have caused millions of people to leave their country. Many countries have been affected from this migration. Turkey is one of the countries that has been significantly affected from this crisis. Turkey is trying to provide some services to Syrian people. Education is one of them. For education of this large population the schools called temporary education centers (TECs) were established by Turkish government. In this way, it is aimed to integrate Syrian asylum seekers children into the Turkish education system. But, TECs have major disadvantages on issues such as bureaucracy, school building, and student absenteeism. Simultaneously, various solutions are employed to overcome these disadvantages. In the current research, TECs’ disadvantages, and solution proposal; which developed for Syrian asylum seeker children into Turkish education system were investigated. The investigations performed in a TEC, which located in Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province in Turkey. Phenomenology was used in the research, and a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used. Participants were determined through convenience sample approach. In this context, the opinions of six TEC employees, including Syrian educators who shared the same fate with Syrian asylum seeker children, were sought. The findings show TECs are intertwined with disadvantages such as lack of school building, overcrowded classrooms, limited social, and cultural activities, and lessening environmental support. The research intends to present first-hand solution proposals to the problems in the education provided for asylum seeker children. Results includes some clues on the relationship between mass migration, and education.