Every Turkish citizen is provided with the service of distance education so as to realize equality of opportunity in education and to support education given in the institutions of secondary education. Within the scope of distance education services, open primary education school and open education high school are available.
Open primary education school, started by the application of eight-year uninterrupted compulsary primary education, provides, by the method of distance education, those individuals who have already graduated primary school but could not continue secondary school for any reason, the opportunity of completing eight year primary education.
There are 69,076 students in open primary education school in the 1998-1999 school year. Open education high school provides service for those students who were not able to continue in formal education institutions, or who have past the age for formal education or who want to move to open education high school while in formal high school. There are 223,184 students in open education high schools in the 1998-1999 school year.