Türkiye bans exams of any kind in pre-schools and primary schools and lets AI tools help write and mark school tests

No exams before middle school

The Ministry of National Education (MEB) has changed its rules on measurement and assessment, and the new regulation took effect on Saturday when it was published in the Official Gazette, Habertürk, Sözcü and NTV reported. The rules cover public and private pre-schools, primary, middle and high schools, central exams and national and international monitoring studies.

Under the regulation no exam may be held in pre-schools and primary schools, whatever it is called. At these levels pupils’ cognitive, physical, social and emotional development will instead be followed and supported over time, Habertürk reported. At every level, results may not be used to rank or compare pupils, classes, schools or provinces.

AI tools and digital exams

Assessment may now be carried out partly or entirely online, using digital systems the ministry approves, and ministry-approved artificial intelligence tools may be used to support writing and marking questions, Habertürk and Sözcü reported. Habertürk said tools developed by the ministry would be used with the privacy of personal data in mind.

Monitoring studies such as ABİDE, which tracks academic skills, and the four-skill Turkish language survey have been brought under one framework. When reports of international tests such as PISA are released, Türkiye’s national report will be published at the same time, NTV reported.

Common exams with open questions

Province and district-wide common exams have been scrapped, NTV reported: exams will now be either nationwide or school-wide. The ministry will say at the start of each school year which grades and subjects sit nationwide written exams, and all other written exams will be held as common exams across each school, based on topic and question tables the ministry publishes every term.

According to NTV, the school-wide exams cover 16 subjects in grades 5, 6 and 7 and in grades 9, 10 and 11. Teachers will write two questions and the rest will come from the ministry’s shared question pool. The questions will be open-ended, with no multiple-choice tests. Grades 8 and 12, which prepare for the national LGS and YKS entrance exams, are left out.

Exams in Turkish, Turkish literature and foreign languages will test listening, speaking, reading and writing, in both written and practical form, Sözcü and Habertürk reported.