Quality in Education: Integration of Refugee Students into the Turkish Education System

Abstract

This study was designed as basic interpretive qualitative study and aimed to uncover the opinions of teachers about the impact of the integration of refugee students in primary, secondary, and high school schools in Rize into the Turkish education system on the quality of education. 17 teachers and 4 school principals selected according to the convenience sampling method participated in the study. The findings revealed that the teachers consider the lack of language skills as the biggest problem that refugee students faced in the education. It was indicated that the lack of language skills negatively affected academic achievement, and the students isolated themselves from the classroom, which also caused problems in social cohesion. It is possible to say that students who did not have language problems stood out in class participation and established good friendships with Turkish students. Teachers emphasized having difficulty with parents and the main reason for this problem was shown as language deficiencies. The teachers stated that language-learning of families would increase the success of students and that language-learning courses could be provided for families.