The efficiency of education in achieving the national goals in East and Southeast Turkey (E&SE) has long been a subject of debate. Both regions are similar to each other and different from the other regions in terms of economy, culture, ethnic origin, and languages spoken. Separatist terrorist activities, economic decline, unemployment, and geographical dispersion are some aspects of the problems in both regions (Ergil, 1995; Özdag, 1995; RP, 1994; SHP, 1990). The lack of teachers, especially in rural schools, limited budgets, inequality in schooling and the failure of schools in E&SE Anatolia were identified as the educational problems by many authorities and published in the report of the 14th National Education Council in 1993 (NEC, 1993). In order to draw a conclusion concerning the efficiency of education in the E&SE, all sources of information was studied and all related information was gathered and analyzed. This study is about the efficiency of education in the E&SE and proposed that illiteracy is significantly the highest in both regions, female student population is significantly lower, and students are significantly less successful in nationwide general proficiency examinations (OSS and OYS) compared to all the other regions. The results indicate inequality of educational opportunity mainly originated from the negligence of ethnic, cultural and lingual existence of the people in both regions. The solution seems to lie in either the application or the type of democracy.