← Back to homeDarüşşafaka Eğitim Kurumları
Istanbul, Turkey · est. 1873 · Private
Illustration · Istanbul
Darüşşafaka is the oldest private school in Turkey: it was opened in 1873 by the Darüşşafaka Cemiyeti society, founded ten years before that, and it calls itself the country's first private school created by a public organisation. It takes children who have lost a father or a mother, from families for whom a good education is beyond their means, and teaches them free of charge and with board: eight years, from the fifth grade to graduation from high school, and the society then helps its graduates with a scholarship at university. That is why the school has no price at all: the competition gives a full scholarship, and this is not something left unsaid but the way the school is built. About a thousand people study here, from 72 provinces of the country, and six in ten came from outside İstanbul. Since 1955 the school has taught with an emphasis on English, and mathematics and the sciences are taught in English. The campus in Maslak, where the school has been since 1994, holds dormitories with a thousand places, a hall for two and a half thousand people, a library with reading rooms, laboratories of information technology, physics, chemistry, biology and genetics, sports grounds and a medical room open around the clock; abilities the school develops through some seventy workshops, to which it assigns students on the results of its own aptitude test and a conversation with the family and the child.
Key facts
Languages
Turkish, English
About the fees The school has no tuition fee: the competition gives a full scholarship with board. In the society's words, those who pass the examination earn the right “tam burslu, yatılı, İngilizce eğitim almaya hak kazanıyor”, and that right holds “ortaokul 1. sınıftan başlayarak liseden mezun oluncaya kadar” - from the fifth grade to graduation from high school.
Admissions Entry is through the school's own examination. Applications may be made by fourth-grade primary school students who have no father or no mother and whose family has no means for a good education; the society names the conditions word for word: “Babasının ya da annesinin hayatta olmaması” and “Ailesinin maddi durumunun iyi bir eğitim için yeterli olmaması”. Since 2008 the examination has tested not what has been learned but “öğrencilerin zihinsel potansiyellerini ve yaratıcılıklarını” - mental potential and creativity - and it consists of parts on general ability, Turkish and mathematics. Those who pass enter the fifth grade and study for eight years, living on campus.
Stages and year groups Grades up to grade 12. The school keeps a middle stage and a high school. At its address in Sarıyer it holds three licences: a middle school, an Anatolian high school with a preparatory year, and an Anatolian high school. It has no primary school and no preschool group: children are taken straight into the fifth grade, and study runs eight years to graduation from high school. The high school has a social sciences stream, where history, geography, philosophy and religious culture are taught together.
Address Darüşşafaka Mah., Darüşşafaka Cad. No: 5/9, 34457 Sarıyer, İstanbul
Accreditations and programmes not found in official registries
CIS · membershipschool is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
CISCouncil of International Schools
It accredits international schools and is a paying association at the same time. It examines governance and ownership, the curriculum, teaching, student wellbeing, staff and premises; a team of volunteers from other CIS accredited schools visits the school. Membership and accreditation are different things here, and schools confuse them more often than anything else.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this organisation but has not been through its accreditation. The difference matters: membership is usually paid for and has no external inspection behind it. There is no entry in the organisation's open directory: the status comes from the school's own words.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
There is no data for this section yet.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓LaboratoriesLaboratories of information technology, physics, chemistry, biology and genetics.
✓Theatre or assembly hallA hall for 2,500 people, for congresses, concerts and performances.
✓LibraryA library with computers and reading rooms.
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
✓BoardingDormitories with a thousand places on campus: the school lives and studies in one place.
Also on site: Sports ground or field
Campus: A medical room open around the clock on campus. The campus in Maslak, where the school moved in 1994: about a thousand people live and study on it, and the dormitories, the hall, the library, the laboratories and the sports grounds are there too.
Clubs and activities (70): list on the school website
Teaching staff
There is no data for this section yet.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
✓Nurse or medical roomA medical room open around the clock on campus.
✓CounsellorThere is a counselling service at every stage: each level has its own school psychologist. The service runs nine life-skills programmes - communication, conflict resolution, rights and responsibilities, self-knowledge, psychological resilience, digital literacy, planning for the future, protection from neglect and violence, and rules of conduct - and alongside them developmental and preventive work, academic counselling, remedial sessions and careers guidance.
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)60 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)45 Teaching staff (10%)no datathe criterion switches on once there is data about the teachers Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data70 Value for money (6%) scored at the median64 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 6 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country