German Language Lesson at Cankaya Halk Egitimi Merkezi (Public Education Centre).
Although not widely known, Turkey has a well established Adult Education network called Halk Egitimi Merkezleri – HEM (Public Education Centres). The system is similar to other European countries such as Germany and Denmark. The network consists of around 1000 centres located all over
the country.
The HEMs were established in 1932, when the government of the new and secular Republic of Turkey started opening Public Homes (Halkevleri) to replace the religiously oriented non-formal education centres. The aim was to reach those who for one reason or another could not take part in the formal education system. The idea was to spread the notion of citizenship and to teach these people to read and write the Latin alphabet that replaced the Arabic one.
In 1956, the name was changed to Public Education Centres and four years later it had its own General Directorate at the Ministry for Education (the General Directorate for
Lifelong Learning).