Village Institutes of the Republic | Where Were They

Mavi Boncuk| Village Institutes [1] of the Republic.

[1] Village Institutes (Turkish: Köy Enstitüleri) were a group of schools founded according to the law dated 17 April 1940 in order to train the teachers. These schools are totally unique to Turkey and this project was led by Hasan Ali Yücel who was the minister of education at the time. They were the cornerstones of the rural development project. At the time there weren't any schools in most of the villages. Village Institutes were established to meet the needs of the teachers for each village. Despite their short life, they highly increased the number of primary schools in the country. They had strong support from the prime minister İsmet İnönü and the director general of primary education İsmail Hakkı Tonguç.