The effect of İzmir Economic Congress decisions on the Turkish education system in the modernization process of Turkish education

Education is basically a social phenomenon that expresses the process of giving the individual the desired direction of behavior. Educational systems are shaped according to the structure of the societies and are being changed by innovations and regulations in accordance with the conditions. This change is usually tailored to the needs of society and the age. With the emergence of changes in education in a process, the history of education is formed. History of education can be expressed as research of all kinds of educational activities. It can be considered as giving information about all kinds of formal, non-formal education activities, programs prepared for the purpose of raising people, schools opened, their levels and the teachers in these levels which change according to the values of the society from past to present. In this study, the effect of the decisions of Izmir Economy Congress on the Turkish education system in the process of modernization in terms of the history of Turkish education is investigated. Eight months ago before the founding of the new Republic of Turkey February On March 4th-17th, 1923 the Izmir Economy Congress was collected. In order to understand better the intellectual foundations of the decisions taken, the educational activities carried out during the Tanzimat period, the Autorocy period, the Constitutional Monarchy and the National Struggle periods in which the need for innovations began. In accordance with the changes in the social structure of these periods, renewal activities were needed. In order to disseminate the innovation activities to the public, special attention was given to education. Care has been taken to train more equipped educators without changing the existing education system. Due to the shortage of school teachers, the desired changes could not be made. In the period of the National Struggle and the Republic, Education was expected to play a major role in the establishment of a new form of government, in the formation of a new social harmony, to teach the values appropriate to the new order and in consequence, to bring up the national spirit and reveal the economic development needed. The goal has been to reach the most remote corner with education. This has become one of the biggest problems for the Ottoman Empire in the modernization process of the education system and the newly established Republic of Turkey. The first movement in this field, which has not attracted attention in terms of education so far, was the First Economic Congress in Izmir in 1923. The Izmir Economic Congress which determines the basic education policy of the Republic of Turkey, preparation, form the collection process and to determine the decisions taken by the congress were discussed in detail. In addition, the study was concluded by evaluating the decisions taken at the congress, its implementation in the historical process and its impact on the educational structure. In terms of educational value it carries the Izmir Economic Congress (Turkey Economic Congress) has been the subject of our research here. The method of the study was made by using document analysis method in history research which is one of the qualitative research methods. In this process, research, articles, theses, books and internet resources related to education were utilized and the documents were examined by content analysis method. Key Words: Economics and Education, Izmir Economy Congress, Village Institutes, Education Issue, Modern Mentality, Turkish Modernization Process.