The Ministry of Education has taken decisive action against unauthorized schools across Türkiye, imposing fines totaling TL 80 million ($ 2.6 million) and closing numerous establishments.
The crackdown, which began on Tuesday, targets schools operating without the necessary licenses, threatening national security and causing economic issues due to their unregistered status.
According to ministry officials, all forms of education and training activities, whether public, private or voluntary, are subject to the permission and oversight of the ministry. Schools operating without proper authorization are considered unauthorized and are deemed a risk to the state's national security and economic stability.
To combat this issue, the ministry is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Internal Affairs to identify and penalize unauthorized educational activities.
A comprehensive campaign was launched on Sept. 1, 2023, creating a "Notification of Unauthorized Educational Activity" link on the website of the General Directorate of Private Educational Institutions of the Ministry of Education.
Following this initiative, the ministry received notifications from all 81 provinces, identifying a total of 5,181 unregistered schools. After consolidating duplicate notifications, the Ministry issued directives to the governorships to conduct inspections and investigations into nearly 2,000 unauthorized educational activities. The ministry's inspection board has also been mobilized to address this issue effectively.
Ministry officials emphasized that unauthorized educational activities include a range of establishments such as education centers, coaching centers, homework centers and language speech disorders centers.
They also announced plans to increase inspections conducted by the ministry to ensure compliance with regulations and prevent the operation of unauthorized schools.
