Students of Tevfik Ileri Imam Hatip School wait for the arrival of President Tayyip Erdogan for the opening ceremony in Ankara

Students of Tevfik Ileri Imam Hatip School wait for the arrival of President Tayyip Erdogan for the opening ceremony in Ankara November 18, 2014. Turkey has seen a sharp rise in religious schooling under reforms which Erdogan casts as a defence against moral decay, but which opponents see as an unwanted drive to shape a more Islamic nation. Almost a million students are enrolled in “imam hatip” schools this year, up from just 65,000 in 2002 when Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party first came to power, he told the opening of one of the schools in Ankara last month. Picture taken November 18, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY – Tags: POLITICS EDUCATION SOCIETY)