The reform in education introduced in March 2012 extended mandatory schooling to 12 years and divided into four years of primary school, four years of middle school and four years of high school.[1] In 2002 attendance at imam hatip schools was about 60,000; by 2017 this number had increased to over 1.1 million (about 10% of all public-school students).[5] Pro-imam hatip school reforms undertaken by the AKP government include reducing the minimum population requirement for areas where the schools are allowed to open from 50,000 to 5,000 and lowering the age at which children can enter them from fourteen to ten.[5]