Türkiye’s expected years of schooling slightly decline in 2024

ANKARA

The expected years of schooling in Türkiye, a measure of how long a child entering school is likely to spend in formal education, has declined from 17.9 years in 2023 to 17.2 years in 2024, according to the country's official statistics agency.

This includes one and a half years of pre-primary education and 11.9 years through the end of secondary school, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said on Sept. 29.

Compared with 2023, the overall school life expectancy for boys dropped to 16.7 years, while for girls it declined to 17.6 years, maintaining a slight advantage for female students.

Regionally, the longest expected schooling was observed in the northern city of Karabük and the megacity of Istanbul at 19 years.

Other provinces with high school life expectancy included the northeastern province of Bayburt, the capital Ankara, the Black Sea city of Rize and the eastern cities of Erzincan and Tunceli.

The lowest figures were recorded in the southeastern cities of Şanlıurfa and Şırnak at 14.4 years.

Looking at gender differences, boys reached their highest school life expectancy in Bayburt, while girls led in Tunceli.

The gender parity index, calculated as the ratio of girls’ to boys’ expected schooling, stood at 1.05 in 2024, up from 0.97 in 2018, indicating continued progress in favor of girls.

The highest gender parity was found in the eastern provinces of Iğdır and Tunceli and the northern city of Bartın, while the lowest was recorded in the southeastern provinces of Şanlıurfa, Bitlis and Siirt.