Our idea is to bring opportunities through technology to the ones who need primary education but cannot access it.

Problema

Turkey has 3 million adults who cannot read and write, 85% of whom are women. In addition, there are 3.5 million adults who have not completed primary school but report themselves to be ‘literate’. 67% of this ‘literate without certificate’ group are women and 45% of them are between 14 and 34 years old. In Turkey, there are no compensation mechanisms to encourage drop-outs to return to school and receive an education. In order to complete the education requirements, they need to pass two levels of literacy courses or exams. However, according to the statistics, only 1/5 of women can pass the 2nd level after attending the 1st level courses.

Solução

Since the 2nd level literacy courses usually operate in midtown areas, women attend these courses less frequently. In addition, there is a shortage of teachers because only primary school teachers can conduct the 2nd level adult literacy courses and it is viewed as low-paid work. To help ameliorate this problem, we developed a web-based literacy program (WBLP). WBLP operates mainly through a learning portal (www.acevdeokuyaz.org) where users can login anywhere and anytime, provided they have access to a computer and internet connection. Through the learning portal, users can acquire the knowledge and skills that they need to pass the 2nd level literacy exams.

Exemplo

In Turkey, there are 968 Adult Education Centers (AEC), which are municipal institutions that provide 1st level and 2nd level literacy courses countrywide. Almost every large county has an AEC. First of all, every AEC will be informed about the learning portal via e-mail and post. The AECs will be asked to announce the learning portal in all of their literacy courses. In addition, local TV and radio channels will be asked to broadcast pro bono advertising spots of the learning portal. Regarding the actual learning portal itself, each user gets assigned an online-tutor. The online-tutors support and help the users and give them feedback on what they have done in the system. One module of the learning portal entitled ‘Preparation for School’ was specially made for the users who want to prepare themselves for the 2nd level literacy exam. The online-tutors will direct these users to this module in the system and give them guidance on how to apply for the exam at AEC. Through the exercises, the users will acquire the needed knowledge and skills for the exam. After that, the participants hopefully pass the exam and attend the open- school where they can complete their compulsory education!

Ofertas e demandas

Our learning portal www.acevdeokuyaz.org is the first literacy learning portal of Turkey that was specifically developed for adults. In this sense, the learning portal is unique and peerless (for the time being, at least!). FYI: The internal launch of the learning portal was on November 1st, 2011 and the public launch took place on May 16th, 2012.