| Doğa Schools | |
| Type: | Private, coeducational, |
| Other Name: | Doğa College |
| Students: | 60,000 |
| Colors: | Orange and green |
| Homepage: | https://www.dogakoleji.k12.tr/ |
Doğa Schools or legally Arı İnovasyon ve Bilim Eğitim Hizmetleri Anonim Şirketi is a chain of private educational institutions in Turkey that offers education from kindergarten through high school. The chain owns nearly 100 schools, over 20 of which are in Istanbul.[1]
The first Doğa School was opened in 2002 in Beykoz, a forested area on the northeastern outskirts of Istanbul. The founders, led by former chemistry teacher, Fethi Şimsek.
Fetih Şimsek had a background in running chains of preparatory schools for high school and university entrance exams, and English Time, a chain of English language courses.[2]
The school chain was purchased by Can Education Group in 2022.[3]
In 2019, the teachers that worked in several different Doğa Schools protested because of the upper management having delayed paying the teachers salaries for amounts of time varying from one month to up to five.[4]
The ownership at the time had mismanaged the finances of the company and no longer had the money to keep the schools running, as a result of this in 2020, Istanbul Technical University bought the school chain for 12 million TL. The school chain would later include the Istanbul Technical University ownership status in its advertising until it got purchased by Can Education Group, which also owns the private Istanbul Bilgi University in 2022.[5]
In February 2022, the official website of the Turkish Data Protection Authority (KVKK) announced a massive data leak for Doğa Schools.[6]