PRE-SCHOOL CARE FOR ALL CHILDREN

• We shall supplement privately owned kindergartens and child care centers top make sure that this very important barrier to women’s participation in the workforce is eliminated. In particular females in civil service will always have access to those facilities.

• We shall build Child Care Centers which will deliver both pre-natal care and health services for children. Basic pre-natal care, birthing and related services will be provided free of charge to poor families and women.

• Needy families will receive further financial aid for new children, as well as in-kind transfers, such as baby care supplies.

• Pregnant women will be given access to a new an extensive chain of psychological and pedagogic counseling centers. We will encourage the young fathers to take part in these sessions, as well.

• We promise to inoculate all children going through these centers, as well as to provide periodic check-ups to all those who seek them.

• Playgrounds will be erected in each neighborhood, with needy children receiving toys and educational material as part of our new welfare drive.

FREE AND QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL OUR CHILDREN

• Pre-school attendance will be made mandatory.

• The practice of co-payments which have become an onerous financial burden for poor families will be eliminated. Primary and secondary schools will “really” free.

• CHP will undertake a comprehensive review of primary and secondary schools with respect to the quality of education, adequacy of teaching aids, qualifications of teachers. Each school will be furnished with play yards, gyms and areas for extracurricular activity.

• We shall enact a wide range of programs to enhance the access of handicapped children to our school system. Home-schooling resources will be increased. Teachers will be given pedagogic training to deal with these children.

• Primary and secondary school attendance will be full-day. We shall reform the underlying philosophy of our current school system to treat education as a social affair, which spans cultural acclimatization, athletics, extracurricular activities. Schools will be centers of attraction for our children in order to reduce tardiness and drop-out rates.

• All children will receive high-nutrition lunches and snacks.

FREE HEALTH CARE FOR CHILDREN

• CHP will increase maternity wards, ob-gyn clinics and childcare centers in state hospitals to ensure that our mothers and babies remain healthy and contribute to the society.

• Hospitals specializing on infant diseases, which can only be found in large cities will be erected in all provincial centers.

• We shall emphasize the delivery of child care, ob-gyn and related health services to rural areas.

• We shall launch a nation-wide campaign to educate young parents in child rearing, and early diagnosis of diseases.

• We will add a children’s focus to our city planning and zoning, making sure that our young generations have always access to playgrounds and similar facilities in every neighborhood.

OUR WELFARE STATE FOR THE CHILDREN

• CHP will focus on children of disadvantaged social classes making sure their health and notional needs are adequately met not to retard their development.

• Children will be exposed to anti-bias and anti-prejudice training from early on.

• CHP will launch a national campaign to raise awareness of “children’s rights”. We shall sign and implement international treaties safeguarding children.

• All our social policies will be reviewed with an eye on minding the interest of our children.

NO CHILD GOES HUNGRY

• Under the Family Insurance system forced child labor will finally be ended. Furthermore, needy children will be granted access to education and health services.

• Family Insurance will make child support payments of TL45-100 per month per child.

• The same program will also provide cash payments to children attending school.

• Schooling will be further encouraged by free books and other school material.

• The Family Insurance initiative will also meet the room and board expenses of poor college students.

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Please also see CHP European Bulletin:  Children’s place in Turkey is alarming

]]> http://chpbrussels.org/2013/04/23/chp-children/feed/ 0 chpbrussels preschool freeeducation freehealthcare childwelfare1 childrenpoverty http://chpbrussels.org/2013/04/23/childrens-place-in-turkey-is-alarming/ http://chpbrussels.org/2013/04/23/childrens-place-in-turkey-is-alarming/#comments Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:57:01 +0000 http://chpbrussels.org/?p=721 Continue reading →]]>

• In Turkey,there is gender parity among rich families,for poor households,64% of boys attain foundation skills compared with 30% of girls. In Turkey, strategies need to target young women from the poorest households
• In Turkey, the rural gender gap is wide. 65% of young women do not complete lower secondary school, compared with 36% of young men.
• In Turkey, 23% of those with no education are involved in non-farm activities, compared with 40% of those with primary education and 64% of those with at least secondary education.
• Unemployment figures hide the fact that some young people stop looking for work because they do not believe they will find any. People who are neither in education or employment nor actively seeking work are often classified as ‘inactive’, even though their inactivity reflects the labour market more than their own motivation. If those who are discouraged from participating in the labour force are included, the unemployment rate increases substantially – rising by around one-quarter in Jordan, Mexico and Turkey (Understanding Children’s Work, 2012).
• In Turkey, 52% of females were identified as inactive, compared with 16% of males.
• The European Union is also an important source of funds for skills development.
• In Turkey, 65% of young rural women do not complete lower secondary school.

Child labour is a serious problem in Turkey

The Turkish Statistical Institute is due to conduct a child labour survey in 2012. Its last child labour survey, carried out in 2006, showed that showed that 5.9 percent of 6-17 year-olds in Turkey (over 900,000 children) were engaged in some form of economic activity. One third were in the 6-14 age group. Just under half worked as unpaid labourers in family enterprises. About 40 percent were working in agriculture. Girls made up a quarter of children working in urban areas and 40 percent in rural areas. 39 percent of working 6-14 year-olds and 83 percent of working 15-17 year-olds were not attending school. Compared to 1999, when the previous survey was conducted, the number of working children had declined, particularly in rural areas and in the case of unpaid family labour.(1)

Current OECD data for relative poverty among children suggests that child poverty in Turkey is the highest in the OECD, at 24.6%, which is almost twice the OECD average. (2)

UNESCO – EFA Global Monitoring Report “Youth and Skills:Putting education to work” –

Full Report: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002180/218003e.pdf

(1) UNICEF - http://www.unicef.org.tr

(2) OECD Family Database - www.oecd.org