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In Turkey, an Imam Hatip school (Turkish: İmam Hatip Lisesi, 'hatip' coming from Arabic khatib, meaning the one who delivers the "khutba" (friday sermon) 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 the Unification of Education Act (Turkish: Tevhid-i Tedrisat Kanunu) 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. They were single-sex schools until this was made illegal in the late 1990s. In time they had grown popular among the conservative families who wanted their children to be educated alongside children of other families with a religious inclination. Current prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan graduated from one of these schools.

Originally alumni were able to go on to study in any faculty of Turkish universities, but in 1999 the rules were changed to restrict Imam Hatip graduates to faculties of Divinity alone. This caused a steep decline in their popularity.

[edit] Notable alumni

• Ahmet Hakan Coşkun - Journalist
• Fethullah Gülen - Gülen Movement founder and current leader
• Recep Tayyip Erdoğan - Prime Minister of Turkey, Leader of AKP, Former Mayor of İstanbul

[edit] See also

• Education in Turkey

[edit] External links

• Imam Hatip Schools Alumni Association
• İmam Hatip Okulları Genelgesi, Hürriyet (30 September 2003)

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