Village Institutes (
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
* Something related to Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire
* The w ...
: ''Köy Enstitüleri'') were a group of rural schools in
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
founded in accordance with a project led by
Hasan Âli Yücel
Hasan Âli Yücel (17 December 1897 – 26 February 1961) was a Turkish education reformer and philosophy teacher who served as minister of national education of Turkey from December 1938 to August 1946. He is remembered for the foundation of V ...
, who was the
Minister of Education
An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...
at the time. The project started on April 17, 1940 in order to train teachers.
They were the cornerstones of the rural development projects in the post-war Turkish state. At the time there weren't many educational institutions in most villages, the institutes helped educate the rural populace. Village Institutes were established to meet the needs of the teachers of each village. Despite their short lifespan, they increased the number of primary schools in the country. They had the support of president
İsmet İnönü
Mustafa İsmet İnönü (24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish politician and military officer who served as the second List of Presidents of Turkey, president of Turkey from 1938 to 1950, and as its Prime Minister of Turkey, pr ...
and the director general of primary education
İsmail Hakkı Tonguç İsmail Hakkı Tonguç (1893–1960) was a teacher and director for primary education in the Ministry of National Education of Turkey. He is considered to have deeply influenced the education program during the single party era and the Village In ...
.
Foundation and general information
Students were selected among the most successful students in the villages and after taking education they went back to these villages to work as teachers because for the other people educated at the other teacher training schools, going to a village and being teachers those places are seen as obligatory works. However, the rate of literacy was as low as 5% in the early times of the Turkish Republic and the 80% of the total population were living in the villages. A pedagogist named
Halil Fikret Kanad Halil is a common Turkish, Albanian and Bosnian male given name. It is equivalent to the Arabic given name and surname Khalil or its variant Khaleel.
Notable persons with the name include:
* Halil Akbunar (born 1993), Turkish footballer
* Ha ...
had been working on this project for a long time and he supported the idea of training ambitious teachers being volunteers at these villages.
Village Institutes had its roots in 1936 when the first Teacher Course (EÄŸitmen Kursu) was started in
Çifteler
Çifteler is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Eskişehir Province, Turkey. Its area is 858 km2, and its population is 14,906 (2022). Its elevation is . It borders with Sivrihisar, Seyitgazi, Han, Eskişehir, Han and Mahmudiy ...
,
EskiÅŸehir
EskiÅŸehir ( , ; from 'old' and 'city') is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the EskiÅŸehir Province. The urban population of the city is 821 315 (Odunpazari + Tebebasi), with a metropolitan population of 921 630.
The city is l ...
, Upon the success of this first course, 3 other village teacher schools were opened in
İzmir
İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...
,
Kırklareli
Kırklareli () is a city in the East Thrace, European part of Turkey. It is the seat of Kırklareli Province and Kırklareli District.[Kastamonu
Kastamonu, formerly Kastamone/Castamone () and Kastamon/Castamon (), is a city in northern Turkey. It is the seat of Kastamonu Province and Kastamonu District.] . Officially established in 1940, the village institutes started to be founded in the areas which have cultivable lands and easier access through railway. The law numbered 3803 envisaged the conversion of existing trial schools into institutes and the opening of seventeen new Village Institute
In these schools founded at 21 different regions of Turkey, the teachers would teach villagers both how to read and write and modern agriculture methods. Instead of education based on just books, they taught people by practicing things in the right place. With this purpose, all the schools had their own fields, farms, workshops and animals. Until its closure, a lot of fields became useful for agriculture and the production in these fields increased. A great number of warehouses, new roads and buildings were built by the people educating at these schools. Until 1954 when they were closed, 1,308 women and 15,943 men, namely totally 17,251 people were educated as teachers.
Courses
The schools were built near the cultivable fields because one of the aims of these institutes is to teach people the new methods for agriculture. The education in village institutes included both practical (agriculture, construction, arts and crafts etc.) and classical (mathematics, science, literature, history etc.) courses. A teacher graduated from these institutes is not only a primary school teacher but also has some practical knowledge about many areas such as apiculture, fisheries, carpentry...etc. Even the buildings for these schools were built by the teachers sent there with the help of the villagers. Their daily routine included morning gymnastics, reading hours and farming. Each student has to read 25 books for each year and learn how to play a musical instrument. They also had weekly meetings in which students can freely criticize teachers and school administration. These institutes became good and rare examples of learning by doing and from this aspect they became the subjects for many studies.
Closure
In the final years of their service, there were a total of twenty Village Institutes and one Superior Village Institute that trains teachers for the others. They gave about 25000 graduates.
Despite their great benefits, many parts of the society were against these schools. Conservatives opposed the co-ed education in a boarding school. It was very hard to persuade parents at villages to let their daughters to study there.
Anti-communist
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
and
anti-socialist
Criticism of socialism is any critique of socialist economics and socialist models of organization and their feasibility, as well as the political and social implications of adopting such a system. Some critiques are not necessarily directed ...
movements, strong at the time, attacked the schools and lower their reputation in the society. School libraries contained leftist books as well and students were expected to read different political thoughts. Also many
landlord
A landlord is the owner of property such as a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate that is rented or leased to an individual or business, known as a tenant (also called a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). The term landlord appli ...
s that control villages were disturbed by the highly educated teachers coming back. They not only formed primary schools but also educated the villagers both intellectually and about agriculture.
In 1945 the Village Institutes began to be subjected to violent attacks by the conservative wing of the
CHP and the newly founded
DP.
The Village Institutes were accused of fostering an subversive, unruly, anti-traditional generation and being the hotbeds of
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
indoctrination. These attacks were waged mainly by the great landowners in and outside of the Parliament and their mouthpieces in the press.
[ Sir H. A. R. Gibb]
''The Encyclopaedia of Islam''
Brill Archive, page 282.
The Government was forced to close them due to strong pressure from the society, opposition party and upcoming elections. Although the government eventually lost the elections anyway. The Village Institutes were transformed into regular teacher-training schools by the DP government (elected in 1950) as a concession to the anti-secularist groups, however these were eventually shut down in 1954.
See also
*
Halkevleri
Halkevleri (Turkish: ''Halkevi'' literally meaning "people's houses", also translatable as "community centres") is a Turkish community enlightenment project. They were founded in 1932 and entirely abolished in 1951.
Background
The Turkish Repub ...
References
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Further reading
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External links
Full text of the book ''Turkish Village'' by Paul StirlingSee pages 275-278
{{Coord missing, Turkey
Vocational education in Turkey
Educational institutions established in 1940
Educational institutions disestablished in 1954
1940 establishments in Turkey
1954 disestablishments in Turkey