Early Childhood Education in Turkey

Early Childhood Education (Okul Öncesi Öğretmenliği, also called Pre-School Teaching) is a four-year teacher-education bachelor's that qualifies you to teach children aged roughly 0 to 6 in nurseries and kindergartens. Most programmes teach in Turkish; in our catalogue the English-taught exception is TED University in Ankara at $7,500 a year. Turkish-taught options for 2026/27 cost $4,500 at Okan, $5,000 at Biruni and $5,500 at Medipol.

The two names sound alike but lead to different jobs. Early Childhood Education sits in a faculty of education, includes teaching practice in kindergartens and produces preschool teachers. Child Development sits in a faculty of health sciences and prepares specialists who assess development and support children in hospitals, social services and early-intervention settings. If the classroom is your goal, stay here; if you want the clinical and social-care side, read our Child Development guide.

Okan's published plan starts with child development itself: development and education in infancy and in early childhood, child health and first aid, and educational psychology. The second year turns to subject teaching for young children (science, mathematics, music, play and drama), and the third to art education, child observation and assessment, literacy readiness and mental health in childhood.

The final year is spent largely in schools, with Teaching Practice I and II, adaptation to school and early literacy, and special education and inclusion. Community service practice and character and values education appear along the way.

For Turkish-taught programmes, you need Turkish at B2: Okan, for example, asks for a TÖMER B2 certificate or a pass in its own Turkish exam, and otherwise places students in a Turkish preparatory year. Working with young children in Turkish all day makes that level a practical necessity, not a formality.

TED admits on school results or international exams (for instance an attestat with at least 60%, SAT 1,000 or IB 29) and teaches in English; if your English is below its level, the preparatory year costs as much as a year of the degree.

Graduates teach in private nurseries, kindergartens and international preschools, coordinate early-years programmes, work in children's publishing and educational toys, and open their own centres. A master's leads to teacher-training, curriculum or policy roles.

Permanent teaching posts in Turkish state schools are civil-service posts, and Civil Servants Law No. 657 (Article 48) requires Turkish citizenship. Early-years qualifications are also regulated at national level, so check your home country's rules for recognising a foreign preschool-teaching degree.

Advance or cash payment reduces the Turkish-taught fees to $4,275 at Okan, $4,500 at Biruni and $4,950 at Medipol. TED's published scholarships for international students range from 25% to 100% of its fee. Okan also runs a Turkish-taught master's in Pre-school Education, with and without a thesis.

A personal strategy, requirement checks, selection of agreed options, document preparation, applications, and support are provided under an agreement with StudyU. For this degree we weigh Turkish-taught and English-taught options against your language level, check recognition in the country where you want to teach, and prepare the application. Decisions stay with their owners: the university on the place and any scholarship, the consulate on your visa, the migration authority on residence.