Anatolian High School (Turkish: Anadolu Lisesi) or Maarif Koleji with their historical name, refers to public or state high schools in Turkey that admit their students based on the nation-wide High School Entrance score.
Anatolian high schools were established as an alternative to expensive private schools teaching in foreign languages and were modeled after the grammar schools. Some of the Anatolian high schools are newly established while other prestigious public schools were added to this category.
Originally six Maarif Koleji, followed by more Anatolian Schools in the later years, were established in 6 major cities of Turkey; namely Istanbul, Izmir, Samsun, Konya, Eskişehir, and Diyarbakır, in 1955, based on a special law enacted by the Turkish Parliament. The name wa changed to "Anatolian High Schools" in 1975. These schools admitted students based on an academic test administered at the end of grade 5, which was the basic elementary education back then. The schools offered a year of foreign language education as a preparatory year followed by foreign-language medium of instruction seven years of middle and high school grades. Several private schools followed the Anatolian School model particularly as an alternative to foreign-based American, French and German schools. Kadıköy Anadolu Lisesi, HASAL, Beşiktaş Atatürk Anadolu Lisesi, Samsun Anadolu Lisesi, Ankara Anadolu Lisesi are amongst the most popular of 83 Anatolian Schools that prepare students to universities at home and abroad. There is also one Anatolian School in Baku, Azerbaijan and one in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Currently, many of the Anatolian high schools' teaching language is English, German, or French. Other high schools in Turkey teach in Turkish; foreign languages are taught only as elective courses.
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