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Ottoman Modernization and EducationPage 2 of 2
As Somel pointed out, Ottoman educational reforms contained to a considerable degree the ancient tradition of viewing education as a means of inculcating religious and moral values to students with the ultimate aim to ensure feelings of obedience and loyalty toward the central authority (Somel, 2001, 6). This understanding of education was more dominant during the last decades of 19th century Ottoman world. Abdulhamid II is believed to have ignored the traditional Quran schools (madrasas) and made the modern schools widespread throughout the empire. When compared with the traditional schools, the modern schools had less courses on religion and moral values. Instead a positivist and materialist thought came to spread in these schools. It is quite interesting that the graduates of these modern and secular schools produced an elite group that opposed the very political regime of the sultan. It is for this reason that the curriculums were rearranged and courses on religious and moral values were increased. This was more strictly applied in schools that brought up bureaucrats of the later years (Alkan, 2008, 16). Furthermore, although the modernization attempts of Tanzimat period were maintained during the reign of Abdülhamid II, the stress on westernization was now reversed and the emphasis on “Ottomanism” left its place to “Islamism”. In the atmosphere of the Balkan Wars and the World War I, the Young Turks began to see the solution in the promotion of Turkish nationalism as opposed to the Ottomanism and Pan-Islamism of the previous decades. There is no doubt that the WW I affected education negatively, as many students and teachers had to fight in the frontiers rather than studying in classes. While the late Ottoman and the Young Turk Era prepared the background for a true reform in the field of education, the first decade of the Republican Period created the suitable conjuncture for the realization of these reforms. In the first five years the emphasis of the Kemalist regime in Turkey was on the Unification of Education and Alphabet reform (Sakaoglu, 1993, 29; Akyüz, 2008). With the Law of Unification of Education in 1924 the Kemalist aimed to abolish the existing dualism in education and for this purpose they outlawed the traditional schools, namely madrasas. On the other hand, with the adoption of Latin alphabet the Republican regime turned its face to the West. It was for this reason that the 1930s and 1940s was a period in which the Kemalists aimed to increase the literacy level and spread public education. People’s Houses and Village institutes were quite significant instruments not only in trying to increase the level of literacy but also in terms of the indoctrination of the Kemalist regime to the populace. The emphasis during the Republican period was on Turkish nationalism based on Turkish race and culture. This is quite evident in the formation Turkish Historical Thesis and Sun-Language Theory in early 1930s. However, it is also an undeniable fact that Kemalists during the Republican period strived much for the development of a national education policy. The equality in education, emphasis on girls, and teachers as the pioneers of change and development were the leading emphasis of the Republican regime.
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