Imam Hatip school

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Turkey, an Imam Hatip school (Turkish : İmam Hatip Lisesi) is a secondary education institution. As the name suggests, they were originally founded in lieu of a vocational school to train government employed imams; after madrasas in Turkey were abolished by Tevhid-i Tedrisat Kanunu (Unification of the Education Act) as a part of Atatürk's reforms.

However unlike other vocational schools their curricula contained just as much arts and science classes as normal high schools. In time they had grown popular among the conservative families who wanted their children to receive religious education alongside the secular one or learn Arabic. Current prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan graduated from one of these schools.

Traditionally alumni have gone to the more prestigious Turkish universities, but have recently faced some discrimination in university admissions due to the secular nature of the country's universities. This caused a steep decline in their popularity since 1999.

[edit] Notable alumni

Ahmet Hakan Coşkun Journalist
Fethullah Gülen Gülen Movement founder and current leader
Prof. Dr. Hayrettin Karaman Muslim Scholar
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Prime Minister of Turkey, Leader of AKP, Former Mayor of İstanbul