January 30, 2012 - 15:01 AMT
Non-Turkish citizens’ children to attend minority schools as “visiting students”

The Turkish Ministry of Education is developing a draft bill to enable children of Armenian, Greek and Jewish residents of Turkey who do not hold citizenship to attend minority schools under the status of “visiting student.”

According to Today’s Zaman, under the proposal, the rule that “only minorities who are citizens of Turkey are to attend these [minority] schools” will be removed from existing private school regulations, therefore permitting any person of Greek, Armenian or Jewish descent who is not a Turkish citizen to attend minority schools.

The draft also sets forth amendments concerning class size. Class sizes will be limited to 20 in preschool education, 30 in primary education, 24 in technical and industrial vocational high schools and 30 in other secondary schools.