Citizens' having high educational attainment and a wide set of skills are one of the main reasons enabling nation-wide prosperity.

I took the university entrance exam in 1973. Back then, Middle East Technical University (METU) made a separate exam in addition to the general university entrance exam. I took the general exam; but the next day newspapers were full of allegations that exam questions were stolen and disclosed to some students. If I am not mistaken, it was the Cumhuriyet newspaper that first featured such allegations. In the end, it was understood that the claimed scandal was real; and thus the exam was cancelled.

My goal was to study at METU. So, I won the exam the university gave and became an METU student. In the time of first midterms, general university exam was repeated. One of my friends from the secondary school, Muzaffer, was aiming at Hacettepe School of Medicine. After studying a couple of months in METU mechanical engineering with me, he passed the general exam that was repeated and then switched to the School of Medicine at Hacettepe University.

The cancellation and repetition of the general university entrance exam was a stressful process for many of my friends who did not want to study at METU. There was a huge uncertainty to begin with: were the questions really stolen? Would the exam be repeated? Then you had to feel the examination stress once again. I do not remember whether the senior officials immediately without waiting for the results of any inquiry declared that there was not any problem. If they did, they must have been quite embarrassed later.

Again if I am not wrong, the repetition of the exam was a turning point after which the university entrance exam was changed completely. And the point we arrived at years after: this time it is not alleged that the questions were stolen. But it is claimed that the questions can be solved on the basis of a certain "code". It is also interesting that only girls took the exam in some exam centers. It is almost impossible if placement to exam centers were made randomly.

The press and the visual media state that there is a connection between the alleged coding scandal and the odd placement. After a comprehensive investigation we will learn whether there really exists any criminal case. Therefore, at this point no comment will be based on sound information. 

We cannot make use of our potential
But there is one point that should be realized: Expert views reflect that there exists a severe mistake. They state that preparation of different booklets for each candidate furthers this mistake. I am not aware of the organizational structure of the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM). Similarly, I do not know anything about the employment structure or the employees. But it appears that there actually is a mistake. It must be the duty of any agency to minimize minor mistakes and completely eliminate major mistakes. There is a certain prerequisite for this: employing the experts of every subject. It is evident that being a prominent expert in one subject does not necessarily bring you success in another subject.

With this perspective, you understand another important reason why the per-capita income gap between developed countries and Turkey has not closed for years. Citizens' having high educational attainment and a wide set of skills are one of the main reasons enabling nation-wide prosperity.

Unfortunately, level of educational attainment and skills in Turkey is not as high as the developed countries or those rapidly catching up with the developed countries. We are all aware of this fact. However, we frequently miss out the fact that we cannot sufficiently make use of the experts that have above-the-average level of educational attainment and skills. To put it differently, we fail to benefit sufficiently from the potential we have. I guess expertise does not mean having an appearance 'as alike as two peas in a pod'.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 07.04.2011