Village Boarding Schools in the Early Years of the Turkish Republic

Abstract

Since the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire faced the problem of orphaned children, whose numbers increased rapidly due to wars and territorial losses. Mobilizing for the shelter, food, education and employment of those in need of care, the state focused on solving the problem with educational institutions such as Darüşşafaka during the Tanzimat period, and later Darülaceze and Darüleytam. In the early years of the Republic, this approach continued and village and city boarding schools were opened, transforming Darüleytam into boarding schools. In the 1925-1926 school year, a total of fifty boarding schools provided education in Turkey, eighteen of which operated in cities and the remaining thirty-two in villages. The students of the village boarding schools were selected only from orphaned or destitute village children. In addition to primary school courses, the boarding schools emphasized vocational training such as blacksmithing, tailoring, carpentry and shoemaking, and also offered practical courses such as music and scouting. In this study, the statistics of the Village Boarding Schools, the forerunner of the Village Institutes, for the 1925-1926 academic year are analyzed. © 2023, Osman Kose. All rights reserved.