While a huge campaign is being carried out in Turkey to get girls go to school, a field study by the education directorate in Sanliurfa demonstrated that some 15,000 girls are not being sent to school by their families.

A total of 269,271 children go to 1,367 elementary schools and four private schools in Sanlirfa...

According to the data provided by the governor's office, 81 percent of children at elementary school-age, go to school.

A 2000 population poll showed that the literacy rate among women is 52 percent, while it is 82 percent among men. The total literacy rate is 68 percent. The literacy rate in Turkey, according to the 2000 population poll is 87 percent.

Despite the prison sentences, the families make their children work in cotton fields for 2 million Turkish lira (USD 1.3) a day, instead of sending them to school.

Under the "Come On Girls to School" campaign being carried out with cooperation of UNICEF, great efforts are being spent to encourage girls to go to school.

As a result of this campaign, 105,498 of a total of 263,646 elementary school students between the years 2002 and 2003, were girls.

The number of girl students rose 1.94 percent to 107,549 during the 2003-2004 school period. The total number of students during the period was 264,118.

Ten-year-old Huriye Ekinci and her sister, 12-year-old Dursun Ekinci, who are not being sent to school by their family, cannot speak a word of Turkish.

Dursun Ekinci said in Arabic that she never went to school and always worked in cotton fields. "I collect cotton in someone else's field," she said.

Huriye said she would not like to go to school because she is used to living like this. "No one here sends their girls to school. We don't know how to speak or write in Turkish," she said.

Mehmet Alkan, who translated what the girls said to Turkish, explained that it is considered "disgraceful" to send girls to school in the region. Boys stop studying after elementary school, he said.

Alkan said the girls earn 2 million Turkish lira a day for working in the cotton fields.

Fatos, Sari, Gulten and Ayse Kaya, of ages between eight and 14, who collect cotton in the same field as the Ekinci sisters, are being forced to work by their fathers.

The sisters, who should legally be at school, are collecting cotton in the fields. Families are sending their children to work in cotton fields instead of sending them to school, despite fines and prison sentences. (GS/EU/EA/YE)