Address-Based School Enrollment System: A Socio-Economic Discrimination in Education

Year 2025, Volume: 6 Issue: 2, 358 - 382

Türkü Kılavuz , Binali Tunç

Abstract

This study critically analyzes how the Address-Based School Enrollment System, introduced in Türkiye in 2009, reproduces socio-economic inequalities in education. It shows how the discourse of equal opportunity in education creates as a class-based illusion and how school choice is constrained by spatial limitations. The study employed a phenomenological design and draws on semi-structured interviews with 27 parents from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. Findings indicate that parents from lower socio-economic backgrounds perceive the system as a source of inequality, injustice, and exclusion. In contrast, parents from higher socio-economic groups tend to view it positively in terms of safety, convenience, and access to services. The system is also frequently circumvented through informal practices such as false address registration and favoritism, resulting in ethically and socially problematic outcomes. Spatially based school enrollment restricts access to quality education along class lines and weakens cultural diversity. Overall, the Address-Based School Enrollment System functions less as a mechanism for ensuring equal opportunity than as a driver of deeper class divisions.

Keywords

Adress-Based School Enrollment System , Socio-Economic Inequality , Education Policy , Spatial Segregation , Equal Opportunity

Ethical Statement

This study was conducted with the approval of the Ethics Committee of Mersin University, Social Sciences Division (Decision No: 55, Date: 05.03.2024).

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