Turkish education in the period of Cumhuriyet, in terms of secular education implementations

ABSTRACT In approximately 200 years old history of our modernization, one can see that affairs of renovation in the periods of Tanzimat, Meşrutiyet, and also Republic are the same: Westernization, modernization, and civilization. During the process of westernization political and intellectual disputes and interpretations related with "what we should accept from the western civilization" and "what we should not" have a great significance for the history of our modernization. The effects of these disputes, which have lasted to our time affect also education being a social institution. At the same time, as a sociological institution, education, is influenced and hence formed by the interaction between other social institutions as well as family, politics, economics, religion and law. The secularization of education in order to create a new generation, is viewed as the most important aim of the republic and practically experienced by Atatürk. The creation of "the new citizen" model required by the State of Turkish Republic is brought into force by the revolutionary staff. This application can be evaluated in the context of human resources as the attainment of our country to the universal standarts in the arena of international rivalry. It is inevitable that a new system of government, which occures as a reaction against the old one, needs a new generation which defends and spreads it. At this stage feeling this need for secular teachers in a system of secular education becomes meaningful more than the past. Tendencies to benefit from the power of this kind of education rises during the administration of the Republic.