Turkish youth suffering from knowledge deficit: Sociologist

A sociologist examines a disturbing level of isolationism in Turkey:

Turkey might have a young population, but the country’s youth are largely insular and ignorant, posing problems if the nation wants to run a globally competitive, knowledge-based economy, leading sociologist Nilüfer Narlı says.

Internet penetration is low, while many young people don’t know a second language, she says. “The poll tells us that Turkish young people are still very inward-looking,” a sociologist said of the poll conducted by SETA, according to which only 10 percent of Turkey’s youth have ever been abroad, and only 41 percent speak a second language.

 The idea of “inward-looking” youth does not coincide with Turkey’s vision of itself as a global player, according to Professor Nilüfer Narlı of Bahçeşehir University. “Turkish youth lack knowledge,” she told the Daily News in a recent interview. The most striking finding is that only 10 percent of those polled have been abroad. This shows that Turkish youth are still very inward-looking. A person may not have been abroad, but can speak a foreign language, can communicate with those in other countries via social media, can read the foreign press and become familiar with foreign culture.

But the problem there is that only 41 percent say they speak a second language, and this figure may in fact be lower, since in certain parts of Turkey, Kurdish or Arabic [which are local languages] could be cited as a second language. In research about the use of the Internet, we found out that many people cannot use the Internet because they cannot read English. There are more people in Egypt who have been to America than there are in Turkey. Turkey has a young population and this is an asset. But for it to be a real asset, the youth need to be equipped with the information, capabilities and vision required by the dynamics of the global economy.

 We need a young population that can contribute to knowledge-based production, but our young people are not equipped for knowledge-based production. Link