Kultur 2000 Koleji

Bringing together 80 years of experience and a background in engineering and combining reason and education with a critical perspective helped the İKEK's achievement of many 'firsts' in the Turkish education system. These leading projects were mentioned in Article 10 of Kültür's Constitution, 'A Kültürlü is a Visionary Leader. Some examples of the practice of this Article:

‘Kültür Dersevi’, established by Halil Akıngüç in 1932, was the first private course in Turkey.

Halil Akıngüç's establishment of the Turkish office of Fernschule school with head center in Berlin in 1933 constitutes the first example of distance learning faculties in Turkey.

Fahamettin Akıngüç focuses on opening to new ideas and thoughts and adopting approaches that moves from the national to the international.  He believes that education is a whole and should comply with international standarts and that education should primarily shape people's characteristics.  He worked towards the innovations in Kültür educational institutions for years.

In the years when Istanbul Kültür Educational Institutions were established, there was negative prejudice in the community towards private schools.  One of the biggest targets of Istanbul Kültür Educational Institutions was to improve this negative attitude in society and to gain the support of the community. It achieved high success in this aim after long years work in education and training sector. In a short period time, it managed to increase its student population by a factor of ten.

Since its establishment in 1960, Istanbul Kültür Educational Institutions continues its initiatives by;

• Allowing its students to hold elections and participate in administration,
• Encouraging teachers' self-development,
• Organizing seminars for parents,
• Encouring students to participate in art events and to exhibit their art in public forums.

The Test office and Guidance office were firstly established in Istanbul Kültür Educational Institutions.  Collaboration with national and foreign universities for teachers' and parents' education has become an integral part of education systems, especially in private schools, today.  Studies performed in the Test office and Guidance office were adopted as a sample by the Turkish Education Ministry and were instrumental in setting up their national centers in those matters.

With the dawn of the information age in 1980, instead of performing exams one by one, a 'Process Evaluating System' was developed through joint studies with ODTÜ.  Teachers' success charts began to be evaluated in longer scales.

Kültür College applies a 'modern management concept' that includes principles of scientific management rather than classical school management.  Management function is evaluated as a dynamic system which helps the school to reach its goals, not as the fulfillment of bureaucratic procedures.  School principals see their job as a professional dicipline, not as an additional responsibility of teaching.

The first Kultur Kindergarten, which was established in the 1989-1990 academic year, is one of the first samples of early childhood training connected to an educational institution.

Kultur 2000's implementation of billingual education is one of the leading practices in education system in Turkey. Istanbul Kultur Education Institutions regularly follows world-wide innovations and developments and put these developments into practice after evaluation by experts and academicians.

Istanbul Kültür Education Institutions is made up not only of schools; it also holds educational organizations such as YA-BA (Publishing Printing Education Tools and Equipment Limited Company), KUGEM (Kultur Development and Educational Center) and the KEV auditorium.