| Life
expectancy |
| 67
years |
| Infant
mortality rate |
| 5,5% |
| Literacy
rate |
| 85% |
|
Health services remain sadly underdeveloped in Turkey, with few hospital beds,
and few doctors in rural areas. Health centres are dispersed all around the
country, but demanding aid can only be provided in larger cities. There is one
hospital bed for every 440 inhabitant, which is not very bad, but seen with the
low number of doctors indicate that Turkish health care is not very versatile.
Child mortality is still as high as more than 5%, and the average life
expectancy almost 10 years below European average.
|
|
|
Turkish system of education has been given a lot of attention, especially on
getting the figures on adult illiteracy down. This is now reported to have
disappeared, but it is not all to many years ago that these figures were as high
as 20%. The primary schools of Turkey have a secular curriculum, but the quality
of the education varies strongly, and not necessarily from city to countryside
alone. School starts at the age of 6. 95% of all Turkish children attend this.
The 5 years are followed up by 3 years of secondary school. Approximately 55-
60% of all Turkish children attend this school. While the curriculum in primary
and secondary schools is secular, Turkey has 400 schools for religious training,
called Imamate Lycees, attended by 350,000 pupils. Higher religious training is
conducted in 16 Islamic Theological Lycees, attended by some 2,000 students.
After primary and secondary schools, Turkey offer lower education at technical
and vocational schools, attended by close to 1 million students.
The Turkish university system is reported to be of good standard, but many of
the country's 54 universities have less to offer than one normally expects from
a university. Major universities, as in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, holds
normal high standards. As much as 750,000 students attend higher education, of
which 16,000 are foreign citizens.
|
