Eğitim-İş Union Sharply Criticizes Erroneous Questions in Turkey's 2026 YKS Exam

Following the official announcement by Turkey's Center for Assessment, Selection, and Placement (ÖSYM) regarding the cancellation and answer changes for several questions in the 2026 national university entrance exam, a wave of sharp criticism has emerged from civil and professional organizations. The Eğitim-İş union, one of Turkey's largest educational organizations, has described this situation as a clear sign of managerial incompetence.

Details of Changes and Cancellations by ÖSYM On July 1, 2026, ÖSYM announced that after reviewing objections and scientific analyses, question number 20 in the Turkish Literature and Social Sciences-1 section of the AYT (Field Proficiency Test) was cancelled due to technical flaws [2]. Additionally, the answer to question number 23 in the Mathematics section of the same exam, previously announced as option "C", was changed to option "A" [3]. These corrections occurred while millions of candidates were waiting for the final results to determine their academic futures.

Sharp Reaction from Eğitim-İş: Beyond a Technical Error In a statement released on July 2, 2026, the Eğitim-İş union emphasized that the existence of such glaring errors in an exam that determines the future of millions of young people cannot be considered merely a "technical mistake" [1]. The union believes that in a system where a single correct answer can shift a candidate's ranking by ten thousand places, question cancellations lead to chaos in rankings and the violation of the rights of talented candidates.

The Meritocracy Crisis in Educational Institutions The core of Eğitim-İş's criticism is the "lack of meritocracy" (Liyakatsizlik) within the structure of ÖSYM and the Ministry of National Education. The union's statement noted that the collapse of institutional memory in the bodies responsible for organizing exams is a direct result of political staffing and non-expert appointments [1]. They believe that as long as scientific expertise is sacrificed for party and factional loyalties, the recurrence of such scandals in national exams will be inevitable.

Psychological and Social Consequences for Candidates Beyond the technical impact on scores, these errors have dealt a heavy blow to public trust. Eğitim-İş warned that these irregularities create a sense of injustice and despair among students and families who have invested years of material and spiritual effort into this exam [1]. The union called for a total overhaul of the question design system and the implementation of a "blind peer review" model based on academic qualifications, free from any political affiliation, to prevent the recurrence of such crises in the coming years.