LIBRARIES IN VILLAGE INSTITUTES
Hasan S. Keseroglu*
Abstract : This paper deals with the libraries in village institutes and the phenomenon of reading, which constituted an original aspect of Turkish Educational History for a short term, and have left deep traces in Turkish Cultural History as well.
Libraries in the Village Institutes, and indirectly the phenomenon of “ reading” has been studied in this paper since the Village Institutes constituted a short-term (1935-1946) original part of the Turkish educational history, and had deep impact on Turkish Educational history as well as on cultural history. The importance of reading and the books in Village Institutes made the libraries inescapable and indispensable part of education. The Village Institutes has been at the forefront of the Turkish Educational history by collecting illiterate children, or children whose parents were illiterate from villages, teaching them reading, writing, thinking and crafts. The generation trained in the Village Institutes took the concept of village to the foreground not only in the field of education but also in the field of rural literature. It was only due to these children trained in the village Institutes could this new outlook be created.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Turkey is located on the main lands of Europe and Asia bearing authentic features with regard to her historical background as well as her geographical position. The history of Anatolia, the Asian side of Turkey, is very old. The sites of first settlement date back to BC 11th century. Divergent states were established, and different empires have reigned on this piece of land. Moreover, the first philosophers have lived on these pieces of land. They are respectively Thales of Millet from the Ionian civilization, Anaksimandar, Anaksimenes, and Heraclites of Ephesus.
In the Ancient age the most important libraries were founded on different sites of settlement and, they provided service of knowledge to the residents living there. These libraries can be listed chronologically as follows: the library of Alexandria in Musaion, the libraries of Ephesus and Bergama.
The Hattis, The Ions, the Amazons, the Helens, the Persians, the Romans, and the Mongols claimed sovereignty over Anatolia and reigned there for a period. In 1071 the Turks pertaining to a Turkish dynasty known as Seljuk arrived there, and Anatolia was divided in to Beyliks (principalities) Afterwards the Ottoman Empire was founded. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire gave rise to the foundation of Turkish Republic in 1923. Turkish Republic today has historical and cultural heritage in addition to tourist attraction
Turkey is a peninsula where two continents meet; the European side is called Trace, which is surrounded by the Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea, whereas the Asian side known also as the Asia Minor surrounded by the sea of Marmara, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
The area of Turkey is 750000 square kilometres, and the population is 70 million. The neighboring states are Greece and Bulgaria in the West, Syria and Iraq in the South; Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia in the East; and Ukraine and Russia in the North.
The republic was founded on the rubbles of the feudal and theocratic empire of the Ottomans. However, the republican way of education and the tenor of its development is the end product of a new cultural identity, or republican ideology in the making with its future aspirations in line with the contemporary reformist cultural policy. Atatürk’s claim on Economic and political independency as well as cultural freedom , and his Western philosophy of Enlightenment has reflected thoroughly in his policy of education. ” (Topses, 1999., 9)
After the declaration of the republic atatürk has laid the foundations of a modern state by the Act of Unification of Education in 1924, the ban on the religious shrines and dervish convents, Civil code and women’s suffrage in addition to the reforms he has put into act in the fields of calendar, scripture and attire. Modernity has generally been defined as “detachment of intellectual activity from political propagandas or religious beliefs, impartiality of laws, protection of human rights, prevention of public or private administrations from being political instruments of power and the isolation of public life from private life” (Bıçak, 2004, 64) . It was not until Atatürk did “science”, or “scientific knowledge”, become the unique guide. Only after the decline and dispersal of the Empire could Atatürk resolve the problems of innovatory attempts made by the intellectuals since then. The Western legislation would set an example in the resolution of the problems. Turkey has inherited the legacy of Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman tradition had maintained in the institutions of education, its staff, libraries, and in the sustenance of some journals (for example, Military Journals) till the laws and regulations related with the reforms of Atatürk were issued. The ottoman Empire was composed of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Greeks and Armenians. It was a composite society, but not amalgamated. Amongst Muslims, the term “public” meant those who eked out a precarious existence. However, after the foundation of the republic its meaning has changed, and come to mean those sharing the same language, religion and race without paving any way for the feeling of apartheid. For the first time in a Muslim country, the term “public” used in a different sense from the past.
Especially in the 1930’s the translation of the classics has revolutionized and marked a turning point in the field of Turkish thought. “Today Turkey has the honor of taking into her possession of the richest and the most valuable manuscript collection of the Middle east as a legal inheritor of the Ottoman Empire. (Baysal ,1973,102)
The most peculiar feature of Atatürk’s policy in the 1924’s and 1925’s was sending students abroad on a scholarship in every field of study , and appointing them as a civil servant as soon as they returned home. For example, in the field of librarianship, three students were sent abroad (Germany and France)
İn the same way specialists were invited to present reports on Turkey. On the same occasion, in 1924 famous educator John Dewey stayed in Turkey for three months to give two reports on the reconstruction of Turkish education, which was planned to take place in 1925’s. In these reports he suggested original ideas on the cooperation between school and public libraries..
The Western scientists has contributed a lot to the development of Turkish Universities. With the impact of fascist movement in the West, Turkey has invited and opened doors for the Western scientists who wanted to their leave such countries as Holland and Switzerland.
The education was serving for religious purposes as it was in the Medieval Christian schools. The medium of language was Arabic, and the lessons based in religious content, the Qur’an. The West has had great impact on the change of educational policy, which led to issue several laws related with education. On this occasion with the contributions of French Minister of education, a new act called Maarifi Umumiye Nizamnamesi (Regulation of Public Instruction) was issued in 1869. According to this regulation, while primary schooling became compulsory, the foundation of libraries passed into the liability of state as opposed to the individual charities in the past. It was only after the Second . Constitution in 1908 did these schools gain popularity
Atatürk verbalized his ideas on the foundation of Turkish Republic and social realities behind it as follows “the Entente Powers The Ottoman Empire allied with were beaten in the First World War: The army was battered everywhere and the Empire signed up a ‘cease-fire’ pact. During the long lasting World War, people became exhausted and poverty-stricken
Those who drove the nation and the country to war escaped from the country for their own survival....” (Atatürk, 1978,1) An educational Congress was held on July 15th 1921 while this exhausted and poverty stricken nation kept fighting all over the country. Perhaps this congress has been a unique example (Akyüz, 1993, 279)in history of world since such a congress could be held while the nation was going through a period of war. Atatürk delivered an inauguration speech at the congress and remarked that one of the basic (Akyüz, 1993, 280) reasons why the Empire fell into a period of recession that it could not provide adequate educational service confirming to the times. Schedules of primary and secondary schools as well as teacher training for villages were discussed but they did not come to an end due to the war (Akyüz, 1993, 304)Should figures indicating the situation of elementary education during the Republican period be taken, following Table 1 is obtained :
Academic year /School
/ The number of male students / The number of female students / Total Student number / The number of male teachers / The number of female teachers / Total number of teachers1923-24 / 4894 / 273101 / 62954 / 341941 / 9021 / 1217 / 10238
1930-31 / 6598 / 315072 / 174227 / 489299 / 11504 / 4817 / 16318
1940-41 / 10596 / 661279 / 294468 / 955747 / 14583 / 5981 / 29564
Table 1
The rate of schooling from the proclamation of the Republic to the Village İnstitutes is as follows :although the schooling rate rose by 150% ,the number of students by 300%, and the number of teachers increased by nearly100%, the literacy rate was still too low. (Köy Enstitülerinde kitap,1995, .7-8).
Years Percentage
1923-1924 3-4
1927 5.5
1929 0
1935 15
The worry about training village teachers during the National Independence war was transformed into one of the main problems of the post war Turkish Republic. According the population census in 1935, 1100000 children out of 16400 people from nearly 40000 villages were deprived of such opportunities (civil rights) as attending schools and learning basic skills (reading, writing and arithmetic). While 1764 of 2345 existing villages provided the above-mentioned services, 581 were closed. The villages where there were schools the number of female teachers was 677, whereas the number of teachers was 2334. 3.79942 people were living in towns or cities, and 132000 children had no chance of receiving the service of education.
In addition to the formal education, literacy campaigns continued to provide service in “Public (Millet) Schools” and “Turkish Hearths”. In “Public Homes”, which were established in 1932, and composed of nine branches not only Literacy courses were held. but also a “rural branch” was set up to bridge the gap between villages and cities. As approximately 82 Per cent of people residing in the rural area were deprived of the right of education, they became introvert, and remained exposed to superstitious beliefs far from adapting to the novelties the change has caused.
From 1926 on training courses were arranged in the schools under the name of “ Village (Rural) Teacher Training School”. On April 24th 1937 Act of Village Institutes (numbered 3238) was issued. On April 17th 1940 the above-mentioned Act was amended by the Code 3803. According to the first article, “Village Institutes are founded on arable lands to train teachers and other experts for rural purposes.” (Elmas, 1976,62)
The Distribution according to the foundation years , the number teachers and students are as follows:Table 2. (Gedikoğlu, 1971,.71)
Academic year
/ Female teacher / Male teacher / Total number of teachers / students / The number ofInstitutes
1937-38 / 5 / 21 / 26 / 286 / 2
1938-39 / 7 / 34 / 41 / 796 / 3
1939-40 / 10 / 50 / 60 / 1567 / 4
1940-41 / 46 / 189 / 235 / 5665 / 14
1941-42 / 80 / 214 / 294 / 8052 / 17
1942-43 / 101 / 259 / 360 / 10161 / 18
1943-44 / 128 / 298 / 426 / 14166 / 18
1945-45 / 145 / 360 / 505 / 15561 / 20
1945-46 / 119 / 403 / 522 / 15559 / 20
Table 2.
The village institutes which had been founded in the era of the one-state party (CHP-Republican People’s Party) slowed down its development during next rule of the same party. Although in 1948 the 21st village institute was opened , ıt started to lose ground by the decline of the number of the students and loss of the previous enthusiasm due to the negative political attitudes assumed by the parties.
What was the most typical, original and highly considered side of village Institutes, which basically aimed at training teachers, was the high number of author they have brought up. Such issues where those writers came from, under what conditions they attended schools, or were raised will be handled later. According to the following table from a basic reference book including Turkish literary men, a comparison has been made taking three standards as a unit of evaluation: (Necatigil,2000)
Here are the standards:
- The graduate writers of Turkish Republic from the first Faculty of Letters from 1933 up till now (Istanbul University, 1933-2000)
- The graduate writers of Turkish Republic from the second great Faculty of Language, History, and Geography (DTCF 1933-2000)
- The graduate writers of village Institutes (1937-1950)
The figures indicated in the table are as follows;
Faculty/Institute The number of Literary men
IU Faculty of Letters (1933-2000) 89
DTCF (1946-2000) 44
Village Institutes (1937-1950) 22
According to a source (Bayrak,1978,630) introducing village-institute graduate authors, the number of authors and pots is 49[1]. When evaluated in proportion to years and (physical) conditions, there appears to be a great difference between them. Of course for being an author or poet it is required to learn the act and process of reading.
READING
In the studies made to lay the foundations of reading act, we can observe that every aspect of reading act has been contemplated, and this way of thought has been reflected to the classes . For example, M. Proust states (Proust 1997,50-51