In the written statement made by the Ministry, it was said, "According to the 'Education at a Glance 2026' report, published annually by the OECD and presenting comprehensive comparative data on education systems, Turkey continues its strong rise in education. In the 'Education at a Glance 2026' report, the main theme of which is 'teacher shortage', despite the increase in the teacher shortage in OECD member countries and the decrease in the attraction to the teaching profession, Turkey is one of the countries that stands out positively in this sense."
Stating that Türkiye is one of the two OECD countries, along with South Korea, where the need for teachers in primary and secondary education levels is fully met, he said, "One of the highlights of the report is that Turkey has a young and dynamic teacher staff compared to OECD countries. While the rate of teachers under the age of 35 in Turkey is 32 percent, the OECD average is 22 percent. In addition, according to the data included in the report and obtained from the surveys applied to school principals within the scope of PISA, teacher absenteeism in Turkey is below the OECD average. Teacher absenteeism is below the OECD average. While the rate of school principals stating that absenteeism negatively affects students' learning is 6 percent in Turkey, this rate is 27 percent in the OECD average. Turkey is also above the OECD average in terms of the increase in teacher salaries in the last decade. According to 2025 data, the gross salary of a teacher who has just started working at the primary school level according to purchasing power parity is significantly higher than the OECD average. However, in the 2015-2025 period, the real salaries of secondary school teachers with 15 years of experience increased by 31 percent in Turkey, compared to the OECD average. "The increase remained at approximately 6-7 levels."
Regarding the number of students per teacher, "Between 2015 and 2024, the number of students per teacher in Turkey decreased from 17 to 14 at the secondary school level and from 14 to 11 in secondary education. Thus, while Turkey falls below the OECD average of 13 in secondary education, it is at par with the OECD average of 13 at the secondary school level. Turkey has also made a significant improvement in the last 10 years in terms of class sizes. Accordingly, the average class size in primary schools is It was 23 students in Turkey and 21 students in the OECD average. The average class size in secondary schools decreased from 25 to 23 in the 2015-2024 period, reaching the same level as the OECD average."
The statement also said, "In the report, the share allocated to education in public expenditures exceeded the OECD average of 9.9 percent to 9.8 percent in Turkey. In Turkey, which is above the OECD average in terms of resources allocated to education investments; the share of education investments consisting of buildings, facilities, equipment and other investments in total education expenditures was 14 percent, while it was 9 percent in the OECD average. According to the report, 92 percent of students in Turkey complete secondary education within the stipulated time. This rate is 75 percent in OECD countries. In addition, while the rate of students who do not complete secondary education or do not continue education after 2 years has passed over the foreseen period is only 1 percent in Turkey, this rate is 12 percent in the OECD average. With these results, Turkey is among the most successful countries among the OECD countries in terms of completing secondary education on time, along with countries such as Canada, Ireland and Switzerland. The rate of participation in pre-school education in Turkey from the age of 3 to the starting age of compulsory education increased by 13 points in the 2015-2024 period, an improvement above the 4-point increase in the OECD average. Participation rates increased significantly with age, reaching 15 percent in the 3 age group, 43.5 percent in the 4 age group, and 87 percent in the 5 age group. While the higher education graduation rate for women in the 25-34 age group was 27 percent in 2015, this rate increased to 50 percent in 2025. In the same period, the OECD average increased from 46 percent to 54 percent. "In Turkey, this increase was 23 points."
