İlimkent Okulları - Türkiye

In Şanlıurfa, near Türkiye's Syrian border, İlimkent Okulları is quietly redefining what education can mean for a community shaped by conflict, displacement, and disadvantage. Founded in 2016 by Principal Ayşegül Işık, the school's name fuses ilim (knowledge and wisdom) with kent (a living city) — a vision where character education isn't a subject, but the very culture of the school.

At the heart of İlimkent's philosophy is its original Life Street learning model: an immersive, doorless environment where 280 students aged 3-13 take on real-life roles in kitchens, gardens, repair shops, craft studios, and science labs. Students gather in the Meydan — a central square inspired by traditional Turkish public spaces — to reflect and share learning. Here, values like honesty, responsibility, cooperation, and patience are lived, not lectured. Male teachers lead cooking and sewing workshops while female teachers guide repair studios, consciously dismantling gender stereotypes through daily practice rather than theory.

The school's impact is measurable. Over three years, counselling assessments show a 44% increase in empathy skills, 78% improvement in responsible behaviour, and 61% rise in peer cooperation. Ninety per cent of parents confirm these values transfer into home life, and 75% of students have formally contributed ideas through the school's Suggestion Box system.

İlimkent's values extend far beyond campus walls. Approximately 30% of students receive scholarships, including children from war-affected and migrant families, and the school employs Syrian women as an act of dignity through opportunity. Students founded Birlikte İyilik Zamanı ("Time for Goodness Together"), a movement that became a formal association. Through nine consecutive years of Goodness and Solidarity Fairs, students have funded water wells in Uganda, supported humanitarian aid for Palestine and Aleppo, established rural school libraries, and — following the 2023 earthquakes — produced and delivered portable shower cabins to disaster zones through the student-led Duşmatik Project.

The Life Street model has earned national and international recognition: featured in a school design publication by İstanbul Medeniyet University, selected as a Good Practice in Education by the Sabancı Foundation, presented at the International School Principals Conference (ISPC 2019), and honoured with the Future Educator Special Award at the 3rd Preschool Education Summit. İlimkent holds the European STEM School Label, and in 2025, founder Ayşegül Işık received the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award from TEPAV and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), recognising İlimkent as one of Türkiye's fastest-growing women-led enterprises.

If awarded the Global Schools Prize, İlimkent will build "Life Street at the Border" — an open-air vocational and character education centre for disadvantaged youth and refugee girls at risk of dropping out. This is not charity but empowerment: a living ecosystem proving that values-driven education can cross borders, restore dignity, and rebuild futures in one of the world's most fragile regions.