Abstract: The aim of this paper is first to explain the main factors that affect the demand for education in Turkey for boys and girls, then to investigate if there are any differences between genders or not, and finally to try to evaluate the impact of the extension of the compulsory education in Turkey in 1997. Ordered probit model is used to understand the main determinants of school attainment in Turkey. It might be concluded that income growth, increase in parents’ education and fertility control contribute positively to children’s school attainment, and their positive effect will be higher for girls than boys. Furthermore to understand the impact of extension of compulsory education difference in differences approach in a probit model is used. The results show that extension of compulsory education increased the total working hours in the households, but it did not have any effect on the probability that the mother starts working or father gets an additional job. On the other hand it had a positive effect on child labor by decreasing the probability of child labor in the households. Another factor that is proved by this study is the fact that due to high drop out rates, increase in school enrollment does not necessarily mean increase in school graduation rates.