The Reflections of educational policies in the era of Abdulhamit on the province of Izmir

Studies of educational history of Ottoman Empire focuses on the period of Conqueror Abdulhamit the second. Increase in the number of the educational institutes occurred in this period. This increase has drawn the attention of the historians interested in educational activities in Ottoman Empire to this period particularly. Until the period of Abdulhamit the second, the concept of education in Ottoman Empire encountered two major transformation periods: (1) Education in Ottoman state during the conservative period, before the administrative reforms and (2) Educational activities in Ottoman state during the modernization period after the administrative reforms. Educational activities were carried out in Ottoman state with children schools representing the primary schools and the madrasahs, the theological schools attached to the mosques, representing the secondary schools during the conservative period. Education based on memorization and beating was often used in these institutions. The first attempts of modernizing the educational activities in Ottoman state were due to Karlofcha agreement in 1699 and Pasarofcha agreement in 1718 as well as the military defeats against the European states. The military schools were the first education institutes set up after this agreements and defeats. Educational activities gained an institutionalized structure in the state during the administrative reforms. Even the Conqueror stated that he supported the reforms of education in the state. This support means affirmative attempts were tried to be performed. A number of reformist attempt were performed during the period after the administrative reforms such as arrangement of educational activities, clarifying the primary and secondary schools and setting up the high schools.The concept of education of Abdulhamit the second was built up on affirmative reformist activities that began after the administrative reforms. The most obvious event of this period was increase in the number of educational institutions. A lot of occupational and technical schools were opened in this period. Educational institutes in Izmir increased in the period of Abdulhamit the second. In Izmir, the occupational and private schools increased due to the efforts of especially the Non-Muslim people living in Izmir. Although a lot of educational institutes were opened in the period of Abdulhamit the second the scientific quality could not be provided by these institutes. This result is mostly due to constraining and centralist regime of Abdulhamit II to prevent disintegration of the state. Furthermore, increasing the religious lessons during the period of Abdulhamit the second has the same purposes.