Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Eğitimde Kuram ve Uygulama, cilt.16, sa.1, ss.83-98, 2020 (Hakemli Dergi)
There are diversified experiences among countries with respect to formulation, implementation and outcomes of voucher policies around the world. Education Incentive Policy (EIP) was introduced as a privatization mechanism in Turkey in the 2014-2015 school year to expand the share of private education. This study aims to describe and evaluate the first four-year implementation period of the EIP applied as a voucher-like scheme for students attending private education institutions. A qualitative case study design was applied to explore the goals, rationales, and the intended outcomes of the EIP through policy documents and national statistics as data sources. The results showed that Turkish voucher case used the neoliberal economic rationales which are efficient use of resources, increasing equity for disadvantaged students, and enhancing quality by class-size reduction and competition among schools. The eligibility criteria to benefit from the incentive had a targeted feature for a beneficiary profile of low-to moderate income families. On the other hand, the transformation process of Private Tutoring Institutions (PTIs) into private schools had significantly contributed to the expansion of the share of private education. Further, since the government paid less money per pupil, opportunities aroused to increase the education quality in public education. The EIP needs to be examined how the policy consequences have affected quality and investments rising in public schools.