Migration due to the February 2023 earthquake and determining, supporting and strengthening the educational needs of children in the age of compulsory education: A qualitative research

This research aims to determine the educational needs required to support and empower school-age children who migrated due to the earthquakes on February 6, 2023. Towards this aim, the research was designed in the form of a holistic single-case study, using qualitative research methods. The study was conducted in the provinces of Ağrı, Erzurum, Iğdır, and Van during the 2023-2024 academic year in the Eastern Anatolia Region. In the research, criterion sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used. In determining the participants, the presence of compulsory education age children who migrated due to the February 6, 2023 earthquakes in private and public primary, secondary and high schools in the provinces of Ağrı, Erzurum, Iğdır and Van was taken as a criterion. Among these schools, eight schools were selected and a total of 24 participants, including a school administrator from each school, a teacher and a parent with children in these schools, formed the study group. Interview forms were prepared for the school administrator, teacher and student parent group in the study group. The data of the research were collected through a semi-structured interview form. The data was analyzed using the content analysis method. In this research, it was determined that children who experienced an earthquake encountered access to school, adaptation problems, socio-cultural problems, educational problems, psychological problems and financial problems in their new settlements after migrating from the earthquake region, and their educational needs were determined. According to the results of the research, earthquake-affected children see themselves as guests, lack of a sense of belonging to school, encountering cultural differences, needing psychosocial support, lack of course materials, falling behind academically, continuing the effects of trauma, not being able to create study environments, living in crowded families, Problems such as insufficient support from Community Organizations, insufficient disaster education and lack of motivation have been identified. In addition, suggestions were made to transfer budget to schools with earthquake-affected students to be used in emergencies, to establish disaster support centers and to add disaster management skill acquisitions to the curriculum