The views of administrators, teachers, students and parents about the problems and solutions of the regional primary boarding schools: A case study

Today, in the light of evolving science and technology, the importance of education for humanity is undisputedly acknowledged. After primary education, secondary education has been made compulsory too and with the innovations in training institutions, the improvements in the Turkish education system continues to progress. With the necessity for all individuals to benefit from education aiming to create equality of opportunity, various arrangements have been made in educational institutions.Due to the residential properties and lack of the population of the areas in various parts of our country, it has become increasingly difficult to establish schools around here. The education need of the primary school age population in settlements with small population is carried out by mobile education, unified class implementation and the regional primary boarding schools. Boarding primary schools were established in places where for various reasons, not yet founded a primary school or in places where a few villages and scattered groups of houses and house exist. The Regional Primary Boarding Schools have been established for the reasons of being settlements without a school in Turkey, some of the schools kept closed due to terrorism, the abandonment of the unified class implementation. In addition, students who do not have sufficient financial resources were intended to be provided with facilities and it was intended to provide eight years of uninterrupted education. The Regional Primary Boarding Schools have some problems addition to all of these significant objectives. These issues are seen as problems related to the quality of education and point of view of the school community; staff, teachers, administrators, students and parents problems and lack of services related to economic and physical conditions of school. In addition, not attending to school of female students, lack of teachers in some branches, not forming of a permanent team of teachers, problems arising from the presence of various age groups such as peer pressure form the basis.With this research, it was aimed to determine the views of administrators, teachers, students and parents about the problems and solutions of Regional Primary Boarding Schools. Accordingly, the research took place at Antalya Şehit Orman Mühendisi Abdullah Aydın Regional Primary Boarding School. The research became a qualitative study of a holistic single case. The study population was composed of three deputy administrators in charge atAntalya Şehit Orman Mühendisi Abdullah Aydın Regional Primary Boarding School, 17 teachers and 247 students studying in this school and the parents of these students. The study group of the research was composed of 3 managers (1 deputy director, two deputy assistant director), 14 teachers, 5 students (second stage students whose parents could come to school) and five parents (parents of these 5 students) that meets this criteria, selected on a voluntary basis.In this study, as a method of data collection, individual and focus group interviews, observation and document analysis were used. As data collection tools, semi-structured individual interviews and focus group interviews based on open-ended questions and nonstructured observation form and for the document analysis, teachers board meeting minutes, board of seizures books, daily seizure books and parent meeting minutes of Gündoğmuş Regional Primary Boarding School were used.Taking into account the characteristics of the data collection, instruments were examined by content analysis of the data. This data was based on an analysis of research findings and reviews established. Recommendations were made based on the results of the study.xvThe most important results obtained from the research are as follows:1. It was reached that personal problems of the teachers and the administrators were: they thought that working in the boarding school was tiring and exhausting, working in this school caused negative feelings, they reflected the negative effects of the school to their families and they didn?t have enough time for themselves. Personal problems of the students relating to school, the problems such as being affected psychologically in a negative way due to the being far from families, being affected by the problems experienced by friends was observed among the students. It was observed that the personal problems listed intensely by parents were the student?s suffering from the adverse affects the feeling of missing their families.2. Administrators, teachers, students and parents had common opinions about the educational problems of school. The problems such as the cooperation between teachers, school management and parents was not enough, discipline problems that exist in school, the region's not giving sufficient importance to education were identified. Additionally, according to the teachers, it was observed that students were not interested in courses, they didn?t obey the hygienic rules, their being away from their families was a negative effect on them, their basic education was insufficient, guidance services was in sufficient, courses are not done due to the lack of teacher. It was cited that unlike other researches, providing the every need of the students caused them not to know the value of what they had.3. The reasons why administrators and teachers work in that school are as follows: emotional satisfaction, the housing opportunities of the regional boarding primary school, sufficient equipment, the school to be in Antalya, having studied in these schools, the high points of service. However, most of them came to the regional boarding primary school without knowing the differences from other schools. The reasons why parents had their children study in these schools and why children studied in these schools were due to the necessity. It was cited that they came to these schools willingly with the idea that their villagers came these schools too, these schools had so many opportunities, free courses and study facilities, being one step ahead of their peers by assuming their responsibilities at an early age, being good of school equipment and financial support.4. It was observed that most of the administrators and teachers were satisfied with working in these schools. The administrators and teachers indicated that the school had some opportunities such as living emotional satisfaction, the opportunity for teachers to improve themselves, housing and equipment. It was observed that all of the parents and students were satisfied with the school. The parents and students had common ideas about the advantages of the boarding school such as state?s providing students with pocket money, aid distribution, providing the basic needs of the child such as feeding-housing, school?s having free courses and study, being able to be successful at being away from the family by taking their own responsibility already. According to the managers and teachers, having so many responsibilities, being exhausting and being far from the city were some of the disadvantages of this school. Students and parents considered the missing the family and not obeying the rules of hygiene by some students as a disadvantage.5. It was observed that administrators, teachers, students and parents had common ideas about the cases to be changed. Some results were reached that the library of the school is inadequate, administration didn?t have an established staff, school had some physical deficiencies, the students didn?t have the opportunity to use the internet, the social activities that the students would evaluate during their leisure time were insufficient, there was lack of guidance services, there was no security staff and there was lack of medical staff. Some problems were expressed that the students came to school without medical reports, the students who were parentless and came from children's charity gather at this school, the exclusion of the regional boarding school due to the negative look of the environment at the boarding school, the allowance of the school wasn?t used efficiently. It was seen that it was xviobserved that the first grade students should stay at the boarding school due to the fact that there were peer pressure and violence in the boarding school, it might cause negative effects such as sexual abuse, it was hard to go out when they stayed in the boarding school and the first stage couldn?t be transferred because some villages were very far away. 6. It was observed that the proposal? Hostel seizures should be kept by the staff other than the teachers? was described extensively by the administrators and teachers as their personal problems. Students and parents wanted the school to be boarding and they didn?t come to a solution about longing. Administrators, teachers and students brought the proposal ?Common rules should be established based on joint decisions in order to ensure cooperation between the teachers and the management of the school." on educational issues. It was suggested that ?Firstly, boarding school students were required to be in these schools by taking some tests.?, ?Guidance services need to work better at the boarding schools.?, "Special training can be provided for children who need special education, Guidance Research Centre can support them.". Teachers, students and parents suggested various proposals that some precaution should be taken to solve the problem of the discipline and hygiene and some sanctions should be imposed when it is necessary. In addition, students and parents wanted the appointment of teachers to the classes whose own teacher was absent. Administrators, teachers, students and parents proposed about the situations that should be changed: ?Alternative activities should be offered to the students for their leisure time.? ?An awarding system should be applied in order to prevent the changing of the administrators and teachers quickly.? ?Boarding school teachers should not be responsible for the tenders, a committee should do this task or should be done by a more central system.? "Physical deficiencies should be corrected in the school." "The school library should be improved." "Students should be provided with the opportunity to the internet."It was cited that administrators and teachers generally thought that the school shouldn?t be a boarding one but it should be a mobile education, on the contrary, the students and parents generally thought that the school was required to continue as a boarding school.