Turkish History Education Journal

Öz

In the Ottoman Empire, there was no state policy to provide general public education, such as its contemporaries in the classical period. However, for religious reasons, it supported the establishment of educational institutions such as madrasah and primary level schools (sıbyan mektebi). Although the primary level schools of these educational institutions seemed to concern basic public education, they did not have a specific program, curriculum, regulation and supervision. When the Ottoman Empire began to decline in the 19th century, reforms were made to save the State. In this context, reforms were made in the field of education with the idea that a well-educated society would save the state. Educational reforms started in secondary and higher education, but it was understood that secondary and higher education could not be achieved without a good basic education. For this reason, the need to make improvements has emerged in the primary level schools established almost everywhere. The search and applications that started in Tanzimat period II. During the Constitutional Monarchy period, it was tried to be made more systematic. In this process, primary level schools were tried to be converted into new modern education primary (ibtidai) schools. In 1915, in accordance with the fifth article of the Provisional Primary Education Act issued in 1913, General Instruction for Primary Schools was issued in 1915. The instruction continued to be implemented in the first years of the Republic with minor changes. In 1929, a new instruction was issued. Requests and changes to the regulations on the form of primary education in the history of Turkish education were reflected in the correspondence of the Ministry of Education. In the correspondence, the search for establishing a primary education system was clearly seen. In this study, these instructions and archive documents regarding the amendment of these instructions were examined. Limited to the years 1915-1929, when the work instruction was issued and changed. The obtained documents and information were evaluated in their own conditions, cause and effect relation, and the process was tried to be explained.