Evaluation of Public Education and Teacher Training on the Basis of 1869 Regulation in the Ottoman Era

In the history of Turkish education, the comprehensive text regulating education was the Regulation of Public Education, which was prepared by a 13-person delegation under the leadership of Safvet Pasha under the influence of the French and published on 1 September 1869. Data sources consist of studies on the history of Turkish education and critical or explanatory works on the regulation. The regulation consists of 198 articles and addresses subjects such as teacher training and employment, determination of school levels, principles of inspection and evaluation, education management, the right to education, education allowances, and vilayet organization and examination systems. It was determined that the articles in the Regulation were not fully applied throughout the whole country, showing that not every law can be implemented throughout the whole country. This is because there may be differences in the implementation of the decisions, as there is not equality of opportunities across cities and regions.


Introduction
The Rescript of Gülhane (Tanzimat Fermanı), which is recognized as the beginning of the modernization of the Ottoman Empire, contains no direct discussion of education. However, after the Rescript of Gülhane (abbreviated below as RoG) was announced, educational issues were addressed separately. Schools -particularly those preparing students for secondary educationbecame an area of focus. Abdülmecid I, who wanted the reforms stipulated in the RoG to be applied in fields outside the military, issued an edict in 1845 stating that education would be an important focus of the coming reforms. To achieve this goal, the Ministry of Middle Schools (Mekatib-i Rüştiye Nezareti), Temporary Council of Education (Meclis-i Maarif-i Muvakkat), National Education Council (Meclis-i Maarif-i Umumiye), Public Schools Ministry (Mekatib-i Umumiye Nezareti), Civil School (Mülkiye Mektebi), Writing and Translation Department (Telif ve Tercüme Dairesi), Male Teacher Training School (Darülmuallimin), middle schools and high schools (Sultani) were all established. Beginning in 1864, the Council of Education of Vilayets (Vilayet Maarif Meclisleri); National Education Directorates of Vilayets (Vilayet Milli Eğitim Müdürlükleri), which consisted of one educational directorate for each vilayet; and Educational Funds (Maarif Sandıkları) aimed at financially supporting educational efforts in the vilayets were established (Akyüz, 2019;Ergin, 1977;Hasebe, 2018;Koçer, 1991;Kodaman, 1999).
The Edict of Reform, issued on 26 February 1856, was a document containing regulations about the right of representation. It also included discussions about places of worship, opening one's own schools, economic obligations, the immunity of property, the right to work as a civil servant in government offices, the state's approach (based on full equality), and a number of arrangements concerning the spiritual rights of spiritual heads; the goal was to ensure equality between non-Muslims and Muslims (Armaoğlu, 1977). With this edict, every non-Muslim community was free to open schools for both general and vocational education. In these schools, curricula and teacher appointments were implemented under the control of the Sultan. A Cosmopolitan Education Council (Meclis-i Muhtelit-i Maârif) was established to supervise and inspect the schools (Somel, 2015).
Although the Edict of Reform had different characteristics in terms of its context and preparation, it addressed the deficiencies of the RoG, serving as an extension and follow-up. It reaffirmed the principles of the RoG and emphasized its effectiveness. Thus, the Edict of Reform interconnected the Ottoman Basic Law and the RoG (Gümüş, 2008).
The 15 th , 16 th , and 114 th articles of the Ottoman Basic Law, which was accepted on 23 December 1876 and was the first basic law of the Ottoman Empire, were about education. Those articles concerned compulsory elementary education and the education offered to society in line with their religion and beliefs; there was also a provision that education would be inspected by the state (Akyüz, 2019).
In the history of Turkish education, the comprehensive regulatory text was the Regulation of Public Education (abbreviated below as RPE) dated 1 September 1869. It was prepared under the guidance of Safvet Pasha, the Education Minister between 1867 and 1871.
The Regulation was prepared under the influence of Jean Victor Duruy, the French Education Minister, who was acting as the foreign education counsel of the Sublime Porte (Bâbıâli) (McCarty, 1997 (Hasebe, 2013). These committee members examined what France had done and what it had wanted to do in the area of education from the French Revolution up until that time; it prepared the Regulation while taking Turkey's circumstances into consideration (Koçer, 1991;Nurdoğan, 2005). Two years before the Regulation was issued, on 22 February 1867, France sent a notice to the Ottoman government that contained its demands concerning education. Among the educational issues addressed in the notice were the protection of Christian schools, the opening of new Christian schools, integrating all the schools in the country, the establishment of libraries for the benefit of all residents, and the training of teachers. Hence, French influence in this Regulation was clear (Çadırcı, 1991;Karal, 1977). RPE consists of five chapters and 198 articles. The first chapter addressed types of schools (1-130), the second chapter addressed the central organization of the Ministry (131-152), the third chapter addressed examination and graduation procedures (153-177), the fourth chapter addressed the qualifications of teachers (178)(179)(180)(181)(182)(183)(184)(185)(186)(187)(188)(189)(190)(191), and the final chapter addressed the financing of education (192)(193)(194)(195)(196)(197)(198). The Regulation also included issues such as teacher training and placement, the right to education, principles of inspection and evaluation, the management of education, the determination of school grades, training allowances, examination systems, and vilayet rights (OA, 186:112/6;Mahmud Cevad İbnü'ş Şeyh Nâfi, 2002).
RPE, issued in 1869, gave education a more modern structure. Thus, from that time onward, the number of middle schools and male teacher training schools increased; junior high schools (idadis) and high schools began to be established to prepare students for higher education; and traditional primary schools (sıbyan mektebi) were converted to modern schools, called primary schools (ibtidai), over time. During that period, vocational schools were also opened to educate civil servants for various fields (Akyüz, 2019;Ergin, 1977;Koçer, 1991;Kodaman, 1999).
The RPE was chosen for this study because it was the first general educational regulation of the Turkish education system; thus, it is particularly appropriate for a study of historical educational practices. Historical research is important in education for a number of reasons. The findings of such research enable educators to learn from the mistakes of the past, to understand the needs behind educational reforms, and to foresee future tendencies to some extent. Historical research involves the systematic search for sources and documents containing facts related to the historian's questions about the past. The present study is important because the implementation of the Regulation and practices related to it have a significant influence on today's Turkish education system as well.
Based on this idea, this paper takes a holistic view by collecting information related to the implementation of the regulation. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to analyze the implementation of the articles in the RPE, which was issued on 1 September 1869. To this end, an attempt is made to answer the following question: "Were the articles of the Regulation of Public Education implemented by?".

Method
This is a historical study of the implementation of the RPE. Historical research is a method used to research events or phenomena that occurred in the past or to examine a problem from the perspective of its relation to the past. It involves examination, analysis, synthesis, and reporting of the past with a critical focus on determining the truth (i.e., generating knowledge). It seeks answers to questions such as "what was it?" (Kaptan, 1998).
It is not true that historical methods can only be used by historians. It is also possible for a nonhistorian to examine an event or investigate a historical incident based on its relation to any discipline and to search for evidence that would serve as a basis for the solution to a problem. In such a study, a historical method would also be used, and the research could certainly be called historical (Hayman, 1968). This examination of the Regulation used the document analysis technique, which is one aspect of the historical method. Written documents are invaluable sources that offer us abundant information about the past (Karasar, 2006). Examination of a document entails the analysis of written materials containing information about the fact or facts being studied (Yıldırım ve Şimşek, 2011).
As this study uses the historical method, its sources of data are 1869 The RPE, studies on Turkish educational history, and critical and explanatory works written about the regulation.
Studies of the RPE were examined, and examples concerning the implementation of the regulation were classified by the researcher based on their subjects and expert opinion. The research data were analyzed through document analysis. Before analyzing the research data, the criteria that would be used for examining the documents (i.e., themes) were specified. In the second phase, the researcher organized the data through an examination that was in accordance with the themes. In the third phase, the systematically and consistently organized data were explained in a way that was supported by direct evidence in the form of quotations. In the final phase, cause-and-effect relationships between the findings were interpreted.
The themes were provided in the table below. The findings were organized based on these themes.

Findings and interpretation
In this section, subjects are discussed according to the implementation conditions of the articles in the RPE and are addressed under the subtitles of general education institutions, and teacher training.

Primary schools and middle schools
The implementation of the regulation prescribing the establishment of a school in each village varied from region to region. In Jerusalem in 1885, all teachers in the 158 primary schools had been appointed by the government. Although the Cenin district of Beirut Vilayet was close to Jerusalem, it had only 35 primary schools in the early 1890s. Some regions, such as San'a, the center of Yemen Vilayet, had no modern primary schools in the 1890s. In Bursa in 1907, education and training based on modern methods were provided in only 11 out of 155 village schools (Nurdoğan, 2005). As seen in the above-mentioned cases, the Regulation prescribing the establishment of a school in each village was not fully implemented.

Junior high schools and high schools
Articles 33 to 41 in the regulation concern junior high schools. Based on the idea of integrating Muslim and Christian Ottoman citizens and educating them with a common culture, a type of school called "idadi" (junior high school) was proposed. It was to provide three years of education that would follow the four-year junior high schools and was to be established in the district centres. However, this idea remained only on paper for a while, and the first civil junior high school was opened in the location of the Civil Servant School (Darülmaarif) in Istanbul in 1873, while the first junior high school was opened in Mora Yenişehir in 1875 (Akyüz, 2019).
As seen in articles 41 to 51, a regulation was passed on the establishment of high schools in each city. However, it was not implemented. According to Ergün, (1996) until 1908 there was no example of such a school other than that opened in Creta. After 1908, the names of junior high schools were converted to high schools in 12 vilayets (Akyüz, 2019).

Ottoman University (Darülfünun)
Following the report that was prepared by the In October 1869, Ottoman University began admitting students; 450 applicants were selected, by examination, from the 1,000 who applied. When the school opened on February 20, 1870, the curricula were rearranged, contrary to the Regulation, and each section followed the same program. In this way, the sections were eliminated de facto. In addition, education under the staff-in-training, which consisted of teachers provided mostly by military schools, lasted only one year. One year later, at public conferences during Ramadan, Cemalettin Afghani caused a controversy by stating that being a prophet was an art. Afghani was sent away from Istanbul; Tahsin Effendi was discharged from his position as a minister; and education lasted another year until it was suspended in 1872. This decision to close was influenced by the writings of the ambassador to Vienna, Şekip Efendi (in Austria in 1848), about the efforts of the universities to demolish the monarchy.
After this unsuccessful attempt to establish Ottoman University, another attempt was made, in cooperation with Galatasaray High School, under the name of Sultani University (Darülfünun-ı Sultani); this new institution incorporated the colleges of law, science, and literature. When Sultani University, which began teaching in the 1874-1875 academic years, opened for the first time, it consisted of a Law School and a Civil Engineering School (Mühendisîn-i Mülkiye Mehtebi) (in place of a science school). At the end of the first academic year, the name of the Civil Engineering School was changed to Roads and Bridges School (Turuk ve Maabir Mektebi). The school produced its first graduates in the 1879-1880 academic year. Because of financial difficulties, this attempt to establish a university was also later interrupted (Akyüz, 2019;Gelişli, 1999).

Male Teacher Training School (Darülmuallimin)
The Regulation (particularly Articles 52 to 67) contains detailed provisions regarding the Male Teacher Training School and its curriculum.
It is stated that a Male Teacher Training School, composed of middle school, junior high school, and high school sections, would be established to train qualified teachers; the school was to have both literature and science departments. When the decision was made in 1870, as there were not enough students to study in the junior high school and high school sections, approximately 100 registered students were transferred to the middle school section (Zengin, 2004). The junior high school section of the Male Teacher Training School could only be opened two years after including the primary school and middle school sections (Akyüz, 2019).
Though the Regulation prescribes that different classes would be established and that students who were members of different communities would be accepted and trained in their own languages, the decision made in 1870 indicated that, due to the challenges of teaching in multiple languages, only Muslim students would be accepted at that time. Classes for different communities were never opened at the Male Teacher Training School, and that provision existed only on paper (Zengin, 2004).
One of the important issues prescribed by the Regulation is the obligation of civil service among teachers. According to Article 62 of the Regulation, teachers are obliged to accept their positions wherever they are appointed; and according to Article 64, they are obliged to work wherever they are appointed for approximately five years. Those who leave their positions, without justification, before this time period ends must refund the salaries they received during their training. It is also very important that teachers do not disrupt education in the locations where they are appointed. There is also a rule that the salaries of teachers who leave their jobs without justification will be cut and that those who fail to perform their duties for 10 days in a month will be dismissed from the profession. During inspections by the inspector of Istanbul Primary Schools in 1886, it was determined that some teachers in Cihangir and Kasımpaşa were not performing their duties properly, and the inspector reported that these teachers were punished with reductions in rank and salary. To justify such heavy punishment, the inspector reported that the teachers in question had been previously warned by the Administration of Primary Schools (Mekatib-i İbtidaiye İdaresi) (Nurdoğan, 2005). However, in contrast to that example, this rule was not always respected consistently. For example, it was determined that Ahmet Effendi, a teacher at Elbistan Middle School, had travelled to his hometown, Malatya, a few times without permission. He was given notice that if he left the school again outside of holidays, the salaries he had received while at the Male Teacher Training School and while away from his school would be taken back and that a different teacher would be appointed in his place (Yıldırım, 2010). As seen in these examples, the articles in the regulations and statutes were not implemented most of the time; rather, they remained merely theoretical.

Female Teacher Training School (Darülmuallimat)
Articles 16 and 28 of the RPE stipulate that the teachers appointed to female primary schools and middle schools must be female, and old and mature men must be appointed to these schools until female teachers are trained and qualified. When the Female Teacher Training School was first opened, a female manager was seen for the first time in a female middle school. Fatma Zehra Hanım was appointed as the manager of Beşiktaş Female Middle School. However, she was not the only person charged with the management of the school. In 1870, Mehmet Müşfik Effendi was appointed as the first teacher; Mehmet Effendi was appointed as the second teacher; and only after that was Fatma Zehra Hanım appointed. The fact that the name of Fatma Zehra Hanım was written on the third line shows that the teachers on the first and second lines also had managerial jobs (Akyüz, 1999).
Article 71 of the Regulation prescribes that the teaching staff of the Female Teacher Training School must consist of a manageress, an adequate number of female teachers to teach courses, and an embroidery master. However, as it was recognized that such appointments would not be possible immediately, a provision was added to the article that allowed teaching by old and well-behaved male teachers until female teachers could be trained. The appointment of male teachers to the schools after they were opened was based on this article. In this regard, Emin Effendi was appointed to the management of Female Teacher Training School for a salary of 2,000 kuruş. One year after his appointment, Emin Effendi wrote a petition to the Prime Ministry (Sadaret) to ask for an increase in his salary or an appointment to another office, as his salary was not sufficient. In response, a 500kuruş increase was applied to his salary, as his work satisfied the authorities; he was appointed as the manager of the Female Teacher Training School because of his knowledge and experience gained during the establishment of the s Sublime Council of Education (Meclis-i Kebir-i Maarif). Ismail Effendi managed the school by proxy in 1877 (Yıldırım, 2010). As seen above, though a female manager was prescribed, this could not be realized. In 1889, in the era of Abdul Hamid, the practice was changed to a system in which a male manager was in charge with a female manageress under him, according to the Regulations on the Female Teacher Training School (Akyüz, 2019).

Employment of foreign teachers
It is clearly stated in the Regulation that the individuals employed as teachers in middle schools must be Ottoman subjects. In 1876, it was reported that because Nesim Effendi, a teacher at Süleymaniye Middle School, did not know Turkish well enough, his students could not fully benefit from his teaching. In the correspondence sent by Baghdad Vilayet to the Ministry of Education, it was stated that he had worked at Süleymaniye Middle School as a second teacher for 7 years and that even if his Turkish was not fluent; his knowledge of Persian and Arabic was widely appreciated. The governor of Baghdad stated that it would be more suitable to assign a third teacher instead of dismissing him from his position, as the number of students at the school had reached 140. Subsequently, the Administration of Middle Schools (Mekatib-i Rüştiye İdaresi) decided that Nesim Effendi would only teach Arabic and Persian courses, his salary would be divided in half, and the remaining money would be given to the third teacher for Turkish courses (Nurdoğan, 2005 School until November 1913(Tümer Erdem, 2007. Madam Valker, who was of English origin, was appointed as a painting teacher with a salary of 800 kuruş when the Female Teacher Training School was opened. The task of embroidery mastership was given to Madam Armik and Hatice Hanim. When the painting teacher Madam Valker returned to her hometown in England in 1872, Monsieur Kes was assigned to this position (Yıldırım, 2010).
However, contrary to the examples above, an inspection in 1888 showed that the French teacher at Trabzon Central Middle School was a foreign individual, and the inspector found it appropriate to discharge this teacher because of the rules specified in the Regulation. The inspector also argued that as the teacher's knowledge of Turkish was not adequate, he could not benefit the students (Nurdoğan, 2005). From these cases, it can be concluded that the Ministry of Education was unclear in its attitude toward the employment of foreign teachers in state middle schools.

Conclusion
The RPE deserves a deeper analysis. This is because the RPE, prepared under the leadership of Safvet Pasha and consisting of 198 articles, is the first comprehensive document created to regulate education in both urban and rural areas of the Ottoman Empire.  Cemaloğlu (2005) states that the models appropriate for France were directly applied to Turkish society -which had a different structure and culture -without any analysis, research, or adaptation. This constitutes the basis of our current public management and is the source of our education system, which is too large, clunky, and bureaucratic.
The Regulation was not implemented effectively, as seen in the above examples. According to Karal (1977), even though the Regulation offered a compact education program, money and staff were needed for its application; however, the public treasury had some financial problems when the regulation was declared and it took a long time to train the staff.
The vilayets of Yemen, Jerusalem, and Beirut differed from one another in terms of the number of primary schools opened, considering the numbers of primary schools planned for each vilayet pursuant to the Regulation. This implies a difference between the socio-economic development and educational development levels of the region and shows that the instructions coming from the center found limited opportunities for implementation. Nurdoğan (2005) states that the Regulation could be implemented effectively only after 1880, and its applications differed from place to place. Tümer Erdem (2007) states that the decision to open at least one primary school in every village and neighborhood according to the Regulation was mostly realized.
One of the most important needs during the development of schools in rural areas was teaching staff. The Regulation prescribes that teachers were to graduate from Male Teacher Training School, but the number of teacher training schools of this sort was not sufficient to achieve this. On this matter, Nurdoğan (2005) says that to make up for the teacher shortage, local officials and military officers were temporarily employed as teachers at schools, and the Ministry of Education attempted to train teachers who could teach the basic rules of reading and writing to the local population in a short period.
When the history of Turkish education is analyzed, it is clear that other regulations and statutes were not implemented successfully, just like the 1869 RPE. For example, the edict enacted by Mahmud II in 1824 could not be applied. That edict aimed to prevent boys from being sold to masters as apprentices to make Money, to prevent them from becoming craftsmen instead of being sent to school, and to enable them to take religious education at primary schools before adolescence. According to Tümer Erdem (2007), the edict that aimed to achieve its goals through religious and legal sanctions was far from being innovative. Although it contained a kind of obligation for primary school, it mostly contained provisions that repeated the views of ulama; the provisions of the edict were only valid for Istanbul and did not involve primary schools of vilayet; and thus it did not have the quality of a general provision. Among the reasons for the failure of the 1824 edict, which was the first attempt to make primary school compulsory, were problems occupying the empire such as the abolition of the Guild of Janissaries, the Russian-Turkish War, and issues with Egypt, Baghdad, and Scutari (Akyüz, 2019;Tümer Erdem, 2007). Additionally, another regulation that was not completely applied was the April 1847 Regulation on primary school. The April 1847 Regulation was a document ahead of its time and was not fully implemented because of the innovations it proposed for teachers' training, salaries, and workloads (Akyüz, 1994).
These research findings show that the laws introduced could not be effectively applied around the country. As different vilayets and regions had unequal opportunities, differences appeared in the implementation of the decisions as well. According to Cemaloğlu (2005), some situations and problems have persisted until today and date to the period that began with Tanzimat, such as centralization, favoritism and protection in appointments and promotions, imbalances between authority and responsibility, lack of resources, haste in innovative activities, and application of innovations without any research.