Universal and National Appearance in Compulsory Education

Abstract

The efforts of development and expansion ofprimary education have gained a new dimension with the extension of compulsory education duration to 8 years. In this paper, firstly, the articles related to "education right" as a basic human right in international documents (UN Declaration of Human Rights-1948, UN Declaration of Child Rights, UN Declaration of Child Rights-1989 etc.) are reminded, then, levels of development achieved in compulsory education are presented. A few indicators in universal compulsory education are as follows: • Compulsory education durations change between 4 and 12 years, and compulsory education ages changebetween 4 and 18. • While compulsory education in many countries is limited to primary education, in some countries itincludes the first or second stages of secondary education. • Schooling has not yet been providedfor the whole body of children at age of compulsory education in manycountries, mainly in Africa, Asia and Arabic countries. For example, although compulsory education duration is 8 years in Brazil and Chile, net schooling rate is respectively 86% and 83%. Compulsory education duration in Turkey which had been 5 years since 1960s was extended to 8 years from the beginning of 1997-98 teaching year with the Act no. 4306 and dated 16.8.1997. Schooling rate in eight year-primary education is estimated at the level of80s%. It is predicted that additional capacity of two million is needed to provide primary education for all age groups.