The impact of access to ICT, student background and school/home environment on academic success of students in Turkey: An international comparative analysis

• Availability of internet connection has a positive impact on academic success.
• Internet connection at schools in Turkey may not be used for school-related activities.
• As school size increases, the academic success of students declines.
• Education in student's native language contributes to academic achievement.
• Education level of parents and student's performance are positively correlated.

This paper utilizes OECD's original PISA 2012 dataset to investigate the impact of access to ICT, student background and school/home environment on academic performance of students. Using cross-section data from 4848 15-year-old students in Turkey, ordered logit models are developed and analyzed. The results indicate that (i) availability of internet connection at home or school and student's possession of his/her own room at home have positive impacts on academic success, (ii) internet connection at schools may not be used for school-related activities and therefore distracts student's attention from schoolwork, (iii) as student-per-teacher ratio or school size increases, the academic success of students declines, (iv) pre-primary education and education in student's native language contribute to academic achievement, (v) there is a positive relationship between education level of parents and student's performance at school. Using additional data from 22,273 students, the paper also presents an international analysis that compares the results from Turkey with those from Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Finally, the urgent need for collection of micro level (at student, school or parent level) data on Turkish education system is underlined.