Vocational Training Centers in Turkey face scrutiny over student workplace fatalities

Turkish Member of Parliament Perihan Koca has brought the rising rate of workplace accidents and fatalities among students in Vocational Training Centers (MESEM) to the agenda of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Official data indicates that between 2021 and 2026, a total of 31,747 students in vocational training centers and technical high schools suffered workplace accidents. Specifically, between 2025 and 2026, 9,950 students were involved in accidents, resulting in the deaths of 37 children.

Critics and parliamentary inquiries suggest that the MESEM model, which has seen student enrollment grow to nearly 500,000, is being used as a mechanism to provide cheap and insecure labor for industry rather than serving as a pedagogical educational model. Questions have been raised regarding the responsibility of Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin and whether public officials will face disciplinary action for the lack of oversight and failure to prevent these occupational fatalities.