Financing vocational and technical secondary education institutions: The case of Ankara province

The aim of this research is to reveal the financial sources, problems that encountered in practice, and solutions of vocational and technical secondary education institutions in Turkey. It was designed as a 'jumbled single case' study by adopting the qualitative method and data were collected through literature review, document analysis and semi-structured interview forms. In the research, firstly, Development Plans, the National Education Congress Decisions, the 2023 Education Vision Document published between 1999-2022, and the legislation were examined in terms of the financing of vocational and technical secondary education institutions. In addition, the opinions of 24 school principals and 17 assistant principals working in 34 different vocational and technical secondary education institutions selected from the central districts of Ankara province in the 2021-2022 academic year with the maximum diversity sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, were consulted. Content analysis were used in the analysis of the data, and the results of the analysis were written in narrative form and supported by direct quotations. According to the research results, schools are funded by the government to a large extent. The number of schools receiving financial support from local governments, related sectors and non-governmental organizations is limited. Policy documents point to the need for increased private sector support. The rate of school-parent union incomes in supplying the needs of schools is low. It has been concluded that the revolving fund enterprises are almost inactive in most of the schools. It has been suggested to increase the public resources allocated to vocational and technical education, to provide support from related sectors and non-governmental organizations apart from these resources, to make them more functional by making changes in the legislation of school-parent union and revolving funds, and to provide trainings on financial management to school administrators.