The effects of social foundation aids on elementary, middle school and high school students and their families (The sample of Muratpasa district of Antalya -Turkey)

The aim of the present study is to determine effects of the education aids provided by the Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations on students and their parents as well as provide solutions to the problems through gathering opinions of the families who are supported with the educational aids. As the first step, the related literature on education aids in Turkey and in other countries were reviewed. Based on the worldwide literature review, the types of educational aids, their general status in society, their varying practices as well as their effects on families were examined in detail. Additionally, the studies conducted on educational aids in Turkey and worldwide were examined in terms of the perceptions of the stakeholders towards educational aids provided by the governments. The data of the present study were gathered through interviews with the volunteer participants and interview forms which developed by the researcher were used as the data gathering instrument. Participants demographic information, such as; gender, educational background, marital status, number of family members, number of students among the family members, number of the working members of the family, the amount of the state assistance (if any), the number of family members who has bad habits (if any) and expenses for those bad habits (if any) were questioned in the first part of the interview form. The second part of the data gathering instrument intends to figure out the necessity of the educational aids for the families, their sufficiency or insufficiency; the opinions of the families on educational aids and the effects of educational aids both on the parents and students. The sample population of the present study were selected through random sampling technique among the families that receive educational aids from the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, in the Muratpasa district of Antalya. Gathered data were analyzed by means of a Statistical Program (SPSS 21.0) and reported as frequencies and percentages and findings were discussed descriptively. The findings revealed that in most cases, the educational aids were provided as cash financial aid. The findings also revealed that the majority of families are low-income families and they have difficulty in compensating educational requirements of their children. Moreover, it is found that the families who receive cash financial aid do not use the state assistance for its purposes. On the other hand, it is observed that the families that receive educational aids have confidence on the government and they support their children in terms of school attendance. Additionally, it is found that educational aids have a positive effect on the social position of the mothers since almost all of the educational aids were directly given to the mothers in the family. Based on the findings of the present study it can be claimed that other educational contributions and financial aids could be added to the current educational aid programs. Moreover, it is believed that the educational aid programs could become more effective if the families who receive educational aids monitored and the use of the aids is tracked through follow-up activities. It is also believed that providing equal opportunities to all children in education through such state assistance programs might contribute to decrease the poverty in the society. For instance, the findings of the presents study revealed that even providing transportation aid by state to the high school students increase the number of the schooling among high school students significantly.