The aim of the social change process that started with the establishment of the Republic was to give a modern direction to the conventional social structure, to raise awareness in modern citizenship and to form the social structure through educatio
The secular education system based on the principles of the Republic is organized by Law no 789 on March 22nd 1926. Besides making many new and modern arrangements, this law defines the current educational levels of the system and takes vocational and technical education within the frame of the Ministry of Education.
The current Training Committee was established on March 22nd 1926 with the name of the "National Training Office" as the scientific and consulting unit closest to the Minister. Gazi Mustafa Kemal announced this establishment on November 1st 1926 in the Turkish Grand National Assemblyby saying "a Training Office has been established to administer the principles of training and instruction from a scientific and independent center."
In the Republic period formal education meetings called Scholars Committees and Education Councils were held to discuss education-training issues and to identify principles in order to change the quality of education.
National Education Councils are one of the most important national consulting units of the Ministry, which have started with the directives of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and continued since 1921, where education policies are defined with the participation of all social sectors in order to take the qualities and quantities in education up to and beyond the level of modern civilizations.
With the Law dated November 1st 1928 no 1353 Turkish became the common language of education.
At the end of 1928, during the time of Mustafa Necati as Minister, Public Schools were opened to teach reading and writing to people, and after 1930 public reading rooms were established in villages. In the following years, public houses were built in February 1932 to educate the public.
National Education Services,
have been improved, developed and expanded in quantity and quality by
great social sacrifices in line with "Generality and Equality, Individual
and Social Needs, Education Rights, Equality of Opportunity, Continuity,
Education Everywhere and Planning in Education".
1. THE CHANGE THAT STARTED WITH THE REPUBLIC
The content of the education services in the first years of the republic
may be grouped under four titles such as "Integration of Education",
"Organizing Education", "Changing the Quality of Education"
and "Expansion of Education".
1.1. INTEGRATION OF EDUCATION
Before the Republic, education institutions were far from having a national
character. Schools were organized in three separate channels which were
vertical institutions independent of each other. The first and the most
common in this organization were the district schools and madrasas based
on the teaching of Koran, the Arabian language and memorizing, the second
were the Reform schools and high schools supporting innovation and the
third were the colleges and minority schools with foreign language education.
These three channels were raising individuals that owned to three different
viewpoints, three different life styles and even three different human
periods.
In that atmosphere, and with three different channels of education, it
was not possible to raise generations that were linked to each other like
a chain and that accepted national sovereignty as a life style, to reinforce
national culture and to ensure national unity. Within the process of change
that started with the Republic, the Law of Integration of Education no
430 was issued on March 3rd 1924. With this law, the three separate channels
were combined, the first one was closed, the second was developed and
the third one was taken under the inspection and monitoring of the Ministry
of Education. This law which meant the "Integration of Education"
has two important characteristics. The first one is democratization of
the education system and the second is transforming and applying secularism
in the area of education.
The arrangements made by the said Law may be expressed as three points.
1. The Ministry of Foundations or all madrasas and schools directed by
private foundations were connected to the Ministry of Education.
2. The money allocated from the budget of the Ministry of Foundations
to the schools and madrasas shall be transferred to the education budget.
3. The Ministry of Education shall open a religious faculty in the university
to educate religious personnel and separate schools to educate imams and
preachers.
1.2. ORGANISING EDUCATION
The education services to be executed by the Ministry of National Education,
established in Law no 3 on May 2nd 1920, were based on the national principles
and the needs of social life and organized to meet the requirements of
the day. One of the most important legal arrangements related to organizing
the education system that shall perform these services was the Law for
the Education Organization no 789 issued on March 22nd 1926. With this
Law, the Ministry of National Education was given responsibility for defining
the degrees and equalities of the public and private schools already opened
or to be opened by a ministry other than the Ministry of National Education.
This Law brings new arrangements such as; "No school can be opened
in Turkey without the permission and agreement of the Ministry of National
Education. Curricula of the secondary education institutions working under
other ministries shall be prepared by the Ministry of National Education.
Curricula of the higher education institutions shall be prepared by consulting
the opinion of the Ministry of National Education and be approved by the
same Ministry."
The vocational-technical education institutions formerly
directed by local governments were taken within the frame of the Ministry
of Education. Because of increasing services, a Vocational and Technical
Education Undersecretariate was established besides the undersecretariate.
With this Law, primary education schools were arranged as cities and towns
(non-boarding), cities and towns (boarding), villages (non-boarding) and
villages (boarding). Secondary education schools consisted of secondary
schools, high schools, primary teacher training schools and primary teacher
training schools for villages. Apart from these, high and secondary teacher
training schools were also included in the Law.
As per Law no 789, a "language committee" was established in
the Ministry of National Education so that Turkish language might have
an honorable place among the world languages and be protected from the
effects of other languages.
This ensured that education might be performed, developed and expanded
in
Turkish.
Also, a "Training Committee" was established and it was suggested
that the science and experts committee be a kind of "general staff"
committee of the Ministry. And when the Law for the Education Organization
was being negotiated in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, discussions
focused on the Training Committee.
Mustafa Necati, the Minister of National Education, said that the Training
Committee was perceived of as "a science and experts committee that
shall handle the big problems related with the education of the Turkish
nation inside and outside the school and shall have moral control over
the Ministry of National Education".
This Law perceived of teacher training as one of the highest priority
problems of the education system. It was accepted that quality education
could only be achieved by quality teachers and the principle "the
essential thing in national education service is teaching" was adopted.
1.3. CHANGING THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION
Apart from the Education Congress in July 1921, a similar meeting was
first held in July 1923 with the title of "1st Scholars Committee",
the second in April 1924 and the third in December 1925-January 1926.
Upon establishment of the Training Office in 1926 the responsibility to
perform these studies were given to the said office.
After that, sixteen councils have been gathered from 1939 to 1999 under
the name "National Education Councils". National Education Councils
are held by the participation of teachers, educators, science people,
specialists from various areas, education administrators, public and private
institutions, organizations, civil society organizations and volunteer
organizations in order to improve the education system and to increase
the quality of education. In these councils, important decisions are taken
in relation to education problems, and education services are discussed
and evaluated on a large scale with people from all segments of society.
Councils which help adapt education to the developing scientific, technical,
social, cultural and economic conditions and introduce innovations to
the system are also significant in a society's owning to its education
services and problems. With these characteristics, the National Education
Councils have an indispensable convention as the highest consulting unit
of the Ministry of National Education. The councils which are held seriously
for long years have been addressed with their major topics.
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SCHOLARS COMMITTEE
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| NO | DATE | MAIN TOPICS OF DISCUSSION |
| I. | July-1923 | Increasing primary education to 6 years Maximum 30 students in 1st and 2nd grades and maximum 40 in the others Children at compulsory education age may not attend foreign schoolsOpening Regional Boarding Primary Schools for small villagesDefining certain criteria for selecting teachers for religion courses just like other teachers Naming senior high schools as high schools |
| II. | April-1924 | Decreasing primary education to 5 years Making high school education 6 years (3 years secondary school and 3 years high school)Increasing teacher training to 5 years Course books |
| III. | December-1925 January-1926 | Personnel rights of teachersGathering high schools at certain centers Establishing a Training Office |
Table 4.
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NATIONAL EDUCATION COUNCILS
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| NO | DATE | MAIN TOPICS OF DISCUSSION |
| I. | 1939 | Increasing 3-grade village schools to 5 grades Opening vocational and technical courses and schools in every place where 200 primary school graduates are involved |
| II. | 1943 | Defining the principles of Turkish ethicsTeaching of history and the mother tongue |
| III. | 1946 | Arranging the curricula of art and trade schools in conformance to the business lifeIncreasing the hours of workshop courses and decreasing the hours of culture courses in these schools |
| IV. | 1949 | Examining the primary school curriculaTeaching of History-Geography-Citizenship information in primary schoolsSecondary school curriculum and increasing high schools to 4 years |
| V. | 1953 | Pre-primary education and primary education problems Problems of children in need of special education |
| VI. | 1957 | Vocational and technical educationPublic education |
| VII | 1962 | Relations between primary and secondary schoolsTechnical educationHigh school curricula |
| VIII | 1970 | Organizing the education system as three levels each depending on another; primary education, secondary education and higher education. Defining the principles for horizontal and vertical transition between these levels |
| IX | 1974 | Problems of secondary educationImplementing programs in secondary education that prepare both for a profession and for higher education, life and business areas Passing courses and credit system in secondary education |
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NATIONAL EDUCATION COUNCILS
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| NO | DATE | MAIN TOPICS OF DISCUSSION |
| X. | 1981 | Integrating the educational system Giving emphasis to vocational and technical education at every level of the education systemHorizontal and vertical transition Orientation in transition from basic education to secondary education Considering student’s interests and aspirations, abilities, success in secondary education and the curriculum followed by the student in transition to higher educationSingle-type, multi-purpose high schoolTeacher training Focusing on teaching Turkish language Topics of Kemalism in curricula |
| XI. | 1982 | Linking teacher training institutions to universities Raising specialists in education Privileges (salary, vacation, etc.) for the teachers who shall receive specialization training Making the teaching profession attractive Giving pre-service and in-service training to teachers Improving teachers’ working conditions Improving teachers’ living conditions Ensuring balanced distribution of teachers |
| XII. | 1988 | Education systemHigher educationTeacher training New technologies in educationTurkish and foreign language education and instruction Education financing |
| XIII. | 1990 | Non-formal education |
| XIV. | 1993 | Pre-primary education Education management |
| XV. | 1996 | Orientation in primary education Restructuring in secondary education Transition to higher education Education financing |
| XVI | 1999 | Vocational and technical education |
1.4. EXPANSION OF EDUCATION
On November 1st 1928 with Law no 1353, a new Latin-based alphabet was
accepted in order to increase the ratio of literacy, to facilitate education
and to make Turkish a common language. In 1931, the Turkish Association
of History, and in 1932, the Turkish Language Association were established
to protect Turkish from influences of foreign languages, improve it as
science suggests and prevent misuse of the Turkish language. Main effects
of the alphabet, language and history revolutions on education were as
follows:
- A large-scale literacy activity was started to teach the new alphabet
to the public.
- Course books, dictionaries and all printed official publications were
prepared again.
- Many teachers were employed by the Turkish Association of Language and
History.
- A widespread activity of replacing foreign words with Turkish words
was started both in daily language and in scientific terms. Teaching in
schools was done, using this new terminology.
2. FIGURES OF DEVELOPMENT FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE REPUBLIC UNTIL TODAY
Within the short period of time that passed since the foundation of Republic,
there have been significant changes in the number of schools, students
and teachers in all types and at all levels of education and important
improvements have taken place in the distribution of education opportunities
all over the country.
- From the foundation of the Republic until today, in different types
and at different levels of education; there were 5.100 schools in 1923
whereas this figure increased ten times to become 58.800 in 2001, and
there were no non-formal education institutions in 1923 but in 2001 there
were 7.200.
- There were 361.500 students in 1923 and this number increased 44 times
to become 16 million in 2001. There were no students in non-formal education
in 1923 but in 2001 the number of participants in non-formal education
courses was 3.2 million.
- In 1923 12.200 teachers were employed and this number increased 46 times
to be 578.800 in 2001. There were no teachers in non-formal education
institutions in 1923 but in 2001 49.900 teachers were employed in non-formal
education.
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NUMBERS OF SCHOOLS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS BETWEEN
THE YEARS 1923-2001 AND THE FACTORS OF INCREMENT |
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| EDUCATION LEVEL | NUMBER OF SCHOOLS | NUMBER OF SCHOOLS | NUMBER OF SCHOOLS | ||||||
| 1923-1924 | 2001-2002 | INCREMENT | 1923-1924 | 2001-2002 | INCREMENT | 1923-1924 | 2001-2002 | INCREMENT | |
| Pre-primary education | 80 | 10.554 | 131 | 5.880 | 256.392 | 43 | 136 | 14.520 | 106 |
| Primary education | 5.010 | 34.993 | 6 | 351.835 | 10.310.844 | 28 | 11.292 | 375.511 | 32 |
| Primary schools | 4.894 | - | - | 341.941 | - | - | 10.238 | - | - |
| Secondary schools | 116 | - | - | 9.894 | - | - | 1.054 | - | - |
| Secondary Education | 43 | 6.065 | 140 | 3.799 | 2.312.271 | 608 | 838 | 138.785 | 165 |
| General Secondary education | 23 | 2.637 | 114 | 1.241 | 1.490.376 | 1.199 | 513 | 72.609 | 141 |
| Vocational and Technical education | 20 | 3.428 | 170 | 2.558 | 821.895 | 320 | 325 | 66.176 | 203 |
| FORMAL EDUCATION | 5.133 | 51.612 | 9 | 361.514 | 12.879.507 | 35 | 12.266 | 528.816 | 42 |
| NON-FORMAL EDUCATION | - | 7.261 | - | - | 3.211.278 | - | - | 49.989 | - |
| GENERAL TOTAL | 5.133 | 58.873 | 10 | 361.514 | 16.090.785 | 44 | 12.266 | 578.805 | 46 |
RESOURCE: The Ministry of National Education Research, Planning and Coordination
Board
Note: Numerical values are temporary figures as of 01.10.2001.
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Ministry Of National Education
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