Türkiye’s Educational Journey: Evaluating the Skills of Mathematics, Science, Reading, and Foreign Language in The Light of International Competition

Abstract

Education has always been significant for sustainable development all around the world. However, it is not possible to achieve development without considering the international standards in this globalized world. Countries can be successful only if they interact with other societies without losing their cultural identities. The European Union is an organisation that fosters cooperation and harmony among countries for development. In this context, it has identified four main areas and sixteen indicators for these areas in order to improve the quality of education. Being one of the candidate countries, Türkiye has declared will to harmonize with the educational policies suggested by the European Union. Therefore, the question of how compatible and competitive Türkiye’s education system has become with international standards remains on the agenda in today’s world of increasing international competition in every area. In this line, this study aims at analysing the current situation of Turkish education system according to four key indicators, which are mathematics, science, reading skills and foreign language. For this purpose, the study employs the method of document analysis. Therefore, we analysed PISA 2022 report and EF EPI (EF English Proficiency Index) 2023 report in this line. The study findings show that Türkiye ranks 39th with an average score of 453 in mathematics, 34th with an average score of 476 in science, and 36th with an average score of 456 in reading skills among 81 countries in PISA 2022. Also, Türkiye ranks 66th among 113 countries with an EF EPI score of 493 in English.