Salih Murat Uzdilek's 1931 Report on Turkey's Educational System: “What is the State of Technical Training and Higher Education Institutions in Our Country?”.


Creative Commons License

Birbudak T. S., Belenli T.

Türk Akademik Yayınlar Dergisi (TAY Journal), vol.8, no.1, pp.1-28, 2024 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)

Abstract

Salih Murat Uzdilek is one of the leading educators and scientists of the early years of the Republic of Türkiye. After his military service in the Ottoman Empire, he worked as a physics and mathematics teacher in different educational institutions during the Republican years and as an academic at the Higher School of Engineering (today’s Istanbul Technical University) for over 40 years. While a faculty member at the Higher School of Engineering, he went to Europe to conduct research and returned home at the end of March 1931. Salih Murat Bey was assigned by the Higher School of Engineering and the Ministry of Nafia and traveled to some European countries, where he visited technical schools, universities and some high schools and made observations. Salih Murat Bey wrote a technical report on his impressions and findings and submitted it to the relevant authorities. The report is in the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, Directorate of State Archives. It is registered in the Republican Archives of the Presidency under the Prime Ministry General Directorate of Offical Affairs Fond (30-10-0-0) with the sequence number 141-10-5. The report, which is the subject of this study, is about the general education system, the technical education system and especially mathematics and physics education in Türkiye. He identified the developments in the field of science in the world at the time he wrote the report and discussed in detail Türkiye's shortcomings in this field and what needed to be done to correct them.