Parliament has approved a new law which will raise the length of compulsory secular education from five years to eight. The aim of the law is to make it harder for private Islamist schools to recruit pupils. The Islamist Refah (Welfare) party failed to stop the law in parliament, passed on 16 August after three days of debate with 277 votes for and 242 against.

Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz set the measure squarely in the context of the secular establishment's attempts to crush the Islamist opposition. '[Refah] wants to preserve the schools to raise new militants for them. No government can allow such a development. The schools cannot be a backyard or training ground for a political party.' Refah leader and former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan said the law was the product of 'fascist secular thinking' and said he would use the courts to challenge it.

The government is bringing in a package of tax increases to pay for the extension of compulsory education by three years, which it says will cost TL 668 million million ($4,007 million). New taxes will raise the cost of gambling, air tickets, beer and cigarettes, tea, mobile telephones, some stock market activities, guns and hunting. The government also plans to borrow some of the money and has asked the public to donate more. Critics say the new taxes will add to inflation and argue that the government may end up using the money for other purposes.