About 100 of the luckiest children in Turkey arrived one day recently at the airport in Erzurum, a city in eastern Turkey. After being counted, to ensure all were present and correct, the children, aged 14 and 15, boarded a plane for Ankara, 850km to the west.

Here, for two crammed summer months, they would take the first steps in pursuit of an opportunity that is the envy of every Turkish parent: an elite, private education – free.