Turkish authorities are preparing to roll out a major change to admissions for some of the country’s most prestigious public high schools, separating competition for boarding places from non-boarding seats starting this year, the education minister has announced.
"We do not have the capacity to provide accommodation for every student, nor is it necessary. We are looking to restructure school quotas by separating them into boarding and non-boarding categories,” Yusuf Tekin said.
Under the new regulation, students will compete only within their chosen category, rather than all candidates being ranked together under a single score list, according to the minister.
This means that admission cut-off scores may differ between boarding and non-boarding quotas, though the ministry says it is too early to confirm how distinct those scores will be.
In Türkiye, the transition to high school is governed by a high-stakes national exam, known as LGS, taken at the conclusion of eighth grade.
High-scoring students gain access to a limited number of selective public high schools, including science high schools and long-established institutions with foreign-language programs.
The move comes as Istanbul faces an increasingly acute student accommodation crisis.
Tekin emphasized that many historic schools simply do not have the physical capacity to provide dormitory space for all students.
Expanding dormitories is often impossible due to space constraints in central Istanbul, and sending students to distant facilities has proven unpopular because of long commute times, according to the minister.
Taking Istanbul’s famed Boys' High School as an example, Tekin explained that while the school may admit around 120 students in an academic year, only half can realistically be offered on-campus accommodation.
Similar limitations apply to other high-profile institutions such as Kabataş Boys’ High School and Kadıköy High School.
Istanbul Boys' High School can only accommodate 247 of its 783 students, while Kadıköy High School offers just 336 beds for a student body of 927. Similarly, Kabataş Boys’ High School faces a significant gap, providing only 300 dormitory spots for its 806 students.
Tekin also addressed several other issues in his remarks to the press, including a crackdown on "influencer teachers" who allegedly use social media to market private tutoring while failing to offer mandatory state-supported remedial courses.
Regarding the school calendar, he noted that the ministry is reviewing the 2027 schedule based on two years of survey data due to the difficulty of maintaining 180 instructional days amid upcoming public holidays.
