The Relationship between Education and Human Development: The Comparison of Turkey and Transition Economies

The main objective of this research is to determine and evaluate the dimensions of educational development in Turkey in comparison with the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. For this purpose, in this study, Turkey is compared to the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries with regard to the educational development and conditions. In this study, carried out through comparative relation scanning model and literature model, the sample group was established the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries with Turkey. The research data was collected by means of data from HDI Report developed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). On the base of data obtained from report, the study concluded that the lowest rate of adult literacy and population with at least secondary education belongs to Turkey. The rate of enrolment in primary education, however, is higher in Turkey than most of the CEE and CIS countries. This affirmative data can be attributed to the high rate of young population and/or education campaigns in Turkey since the lowest rate of secondary education and the highest level of primary school dropout rate is also seen in Turkey. In addition, performance of 15-year old students in reading, mathematics and science is generally lower in Turkey, CEE and CIS countries than in OECD countries.