The historical evolution of teacher training and employment politicies in Turkey

The history of teacher training in Turkey, in modern sense, goes back to Darulmuallimin (School of Teacher Training), which was founded on the 16th of March, 1848. The founders of the Republic not only reformed the teacher training institutions that they took over from the Ottoman Empire according to the fundamental values of the Republic, but also tried to establish new institutions that train teachers. Teacher training which was conducted by Ministry of National Education according to an employment based policy all along was left to universities in 1982. Turkish Council of Higher Education began a reestablishment the faculties of education in the academic year of 1998 – 1999. According to this reestablishment, teachers of primary and secondary schools started to be trained in the 4-year faculty programmes and high school (branch) teachers started to be trained in master’s degree level. Despite this positive development, until the years of 2000, teachers trained remained insufficient to meet the teacher need of the government because training and employment policies were not formed according to educational planning. Since 2000s, employment of the teachers is made according to the results of KPSS, as permanent, contractual and temporary substitute teacher.