Educational Research and Reviews Vol. 5 (12), pp. 794-801, December 2010 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/ERR ISSN 1990-3839 © 2010 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Education of the elderly in Turkey: their educational needs, expectations of educational programmes, and recommendations to the related sectors Yavuz Erişen Department of Educational Sciences, Vocational Education Faculty, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey. E-mail: erisenyavuz@gmail.com. Accepted 23rd November 2010 The world population is getting older especially in the developed countries and this phenomenon causes health, social, cultural, economical, and educational problems and needs. The ageing population shows a similar trend in Turkey too. This study aims to determine, using the survey model, the educational needs and expectations of the educational programmes to be organized for the education of the aged population in Turkey. The findings will help policy makers, the educational sector, and other related sectors to meet the needs of the aged population with the suggestions proposed. Key words: Lifelong learning, elderly education, educational programmes, sectoral needs. INTRODUCTION It is a fact that recently there has been a gradual decrease in the birth rate and an increase in life expectancy due to qualified healthcare and nutrition. This in turn has caused a major increase in the number of elderly persons in the general population. According to WHO the period between 65 and 74 is considered to be the period of old age. However, in countries where the population of old age persons is smaller, this limit is taken as 60 years of age (Emiroğlu, 1992). Between 1970 and 2025, a period of a mere 55 years, it is expected that the percentage of older people in relation to the total population will increase by 223% (Cámara and Eguizábal, 2008). It is estimated that the number of the individuals aged 60 or over will be more than 1.6 billion (WHO, 2002). According to the United Nations (UN) Program on Aging (United Nations, 2010), such a rapid, large, and ubiquitous growth has never been seen before in the history of civilization. One out of every ten persons is now aged 60 or above; by 2050 one out of five will be aged 60 or older, and by 2150 one out of every three persons will be aged 60 or older. In some developed countries today, the proportion of older persons is already one in four. During the first half of the twenty-first century that proportion will be close to one in two in some countries. The United Nations (UN) states that the twenty-first century will be the century of the old population. Furthermore, this phenomenon has been described in colourful terms as the “silver tsunami” (Boulton-Lewis, 2010). The ageing phenomenon that is seen in more visible form in the developed countries is also now the reality of the developing countries (Camara and Eguizabal, 2008). Turkey, as a developing country, has a relatively young population, but the inevitable prospect of having an ageing population has been one of the challenges on the agenda in recent years. The Turkish population structure is becoming similar to that of most developed European countries. Studies have pointed out that Turkey is making a transition to a new demographic structure. It is foreseen that in the near future the total fertility rate, which is currently 2.23, will drop to replacement level, and as a result the number of children and the young population will decrease over time and the share of the elderly population within the overall population will increase (SPO, 2007). Within the framework of WHO’s theme of “Health for All” in the twenty-first century, while Goal 5 relates directly to the elderly individual, Goal 13 brings regulations for the provision of a healthy environment. At the International Population and Development Conference held in Cairo, at which Turkey was one of the participants, the fact that the world population was getting increasingly old was