Abstract:

With in the Turkish education system, private study schools are an alternative type of educational institution outside of schools to provide extra lessons for students who have not attained a high enough level from school lessons or for those who wish to obtain higher points in the university entrance examination. The need for these types of schools and the examination system has made these study schools virtually compulsory. There fore, in this research, these private study schools were assessed from a functional aspect both directly and indirectly. This study, conducted in 2004-2005, consists of 3 sections. In the first section, the sociological functionalism concept and its general characteristics are evaluated, and in the second section, the direct and the indirect functions of the study schools. The results of the application are presented in the third section. The research method was the application of a 26-item questionnaire to 300 students attending a private study school. In addition, both students and their parents were interviewed. The results of the study showed that the private study schools alone were not sufficient for university entrance examination preparation but were preferred because of reasons related to the existing education system and for social, psychological and economic reasons.

Keywords: