Abstract:

Education is a phenomenon of great individual and social importance along with the changing and developing conditions in the world, and is a very significant concept for the society. This study aimed to examine the provinces in Turkey in terms of education statistics. For this purpose, the data on education indicators related to 81 provinces were obtained from the Ministry of National Education Formal Education Statistics and TURKSTAT for the years 2020-2021. In the study, clustering analysis was applied to determine the similarities of provinces in Turkey in terms of education statistics. Then, a factor analysis was performed to rank the provinces in terms of these statistics. In the clustering analysis, non-hierarchical (k-means clustering technique) and progressive (intra- and inter-group linkage clustering techniques) clustering techniques were used, considering the number of clusters as 3, 4 and 5. Then the provinces were clustered. In the factor analysis, three factors were determined, and factor scores were calculated for the provinces according to these factors. According to the first factor scores, Şanlıurfa and Istanbul were the provinces farthest from each other. In terms of the second factor scores, Bolu and Şanlıurfa were the provinces farthest from each other. Finally, in terms of the third factor scores, Tekirdağ and Ağrı were the provinces farthest from each other.

Keywords: