Figure 1.--Primary school children wear blue smocks with large white Peter Pan collars. Notice the embroidered designs on the collar.
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Figure 1.--Primary school children wear blue smocks with large white Peter Pan collars. Notice the embroidered designs on the collar. |
Elementary boys in Turkey wear smocks, generally blue smocks with white Peter Pan collars, and long pants. I'm not sure, however, just when this fashion was first instituted. Secondary school students also wear uniforms, but I do not yet have details on the style.
The history of modern Tukey is largely a history of Kemal Ataturk. He was one of thecfew hero's to emerge as hero from Turkey's participation in World War I. He is named the hero of Galipoli, where British forces in a plan promoted by Winston Churchill tried unsuccessfully to seize the Dardanells so war supplies could be delivered to Russia. After calling national congresses, he was elected President of the Turkish Grand National Assembly in April 1920. From then until his death in 1938, he remained in power in Turkey. In 1934 everyone had to take a surname and Mustafa Kemal received the surname ATATURK
which means "Father of the Turks". He proceeded to guide Turkey through a series of fundamental reforms designed to implementation the secularization of Turkish socviety. The Caliphate was abolished in 1924. Western clothes were promoted. The fez was abolished in 1925. Religious brotherhoods were supressed in 1925. A civil law code was adopted in 1926. The Latin alphabet was introduced in 1928. Women were made eligible to vote in elections and to become members of Parliament in 1934. A major undertaking was abolition of Medreses, unification of education, renovations of school programs according to contemporary and national needs, opening of new universities. A solar calendar was adopted and Moslem holy day of the week, Friday was changed into a weekday with Sunday becoming the official day of rest.
As far as we can determine, Turkey has only one school uniform garment--the blue school smock. It is a back buttoning, rather short smock. As far as we can tell, boys and girls wear the same style of smock. It is worn with a wide white collar. We note that many boys and girls wear embroidered designs on these collars. We see some are the Islamic cresant and star that are a symbol of Turkey, but there are many other designs as well. Other than this smock, the children wear their own clothes--almost exclsuvely long trousers. We do not see Turkish school children wearing any kind of caps with their school smocks.
Turkey made fundamental reforms in education immediately after the foundation of the Republic in 1923-24. The most important was its secularization. Education has been made a top priority of national development. It has the largest budget of any ministry with an allocation of over 20 percent of the national budget. The aim of the Turkish educational system is to nurture productive, happy individuals with broad views on world affairs who will unite in national consciousness and thinking to form an inseparable state, and will contribute to the prosperity of society through their skills. This is thought to be instrumental in making the Turkish nation a creative and distinguished member of the modern world.
Apart from the general educational system, pre-school training is available only on a private basis or with public sector facilities. However, this level of education is not yet common and is limited to only about 5-10 percent of Turkish pre-school children.
These include Special Education Schools for the mentally or physically handicapped or enhanced learning centers for exceptionally bright children.
Figure 2.--This Turish movie showed school children in their smok uniforms. |
Primary education is compulsory for 5 years, started at the age of 7 generally but, depending on the physical development of children, it can also be at 6. There is a new trend to change the obligatory period from 5 to 8 years and some pilot schools have already started in some areas. About 96 percent of primary-age children attend school. In some rural areas parents cannot physically manage to get their children to school.
A special feature of primary schools is that one teacher takes care of all the students in one class, from the first grade and continues with those children for five years until they finish their compulsory education. The school age population of Turkey is very large and often school buildings and teachers are insufficient to cope. This results in two sessions of school, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This helps to explain why so many children are seen in the streets during weekdays. The average number of students in each classroom is 25-40, but in some rural areas, where there are not enough teachers, even more students have to fit into the same classroom. All over the country, in each classroom above the blackboard, a portrait of Ataturk is hung. On one side you will see his Speech to the Turkish Youth and on the other, the National Anthem. There are no fees for education until college or university. At the beginning of the week on Monday mornings and at the end of the week during Friday afternoons, flag ceremonies are held with all the teachers and students present in the courtyard or playground of each school. Each morning, primary school students pledge in chorus to be honest and studious, to protect the young and respect the old, to love their country more than themselves and to give their existence as a present to the Turkish Nation. The chorus is concluded by saying "So happy is the man who says he is a Turk".
Secondary education in Turkey consists of Middle School and High School, each of which normally takes 3 years. A Middle School can be either on its own campus or annexed to a High School. In these schools, the system of one teacher for each class changes to a specialist teacher for each subject. Students can choose one foreign language from English, French or German. Religious Education lessons, depending on the present government’s policy, is often optional, and is actually a comparative study of religions rather than only of Islam.
The aims of these schools are to secure a level of general knowledge, develop an awareness of individual and community problems and to contribute to the economic, social and cultural growth of the country as well as preparing students for higher education. Anatolian, Science, Fine Arts, Vocational, Technical, Islamic Theological and Private High Schools are different from the general High Schools, but are still a part of the Secondary Education system. The Anatolian, Science and Private High Schools are the best and consequently most popular. In these schools there is an extra year (prep class) at the beginning to teach one foreign language and in the following years, all science lessons are taught in that foreign language. The education at this level is free of charge except at the private schools where an average fee is about US$3,000 per year. Students show respect for their teachers by addressing them "sir" or "teacher", or by standing up as a class when a teacher enters the classroom.
Primary students attend school in uniforms which are usually blue smocks or very occasionally black ones. While all the children wear smocks, there appear to be different styles. The smocks are often quite short. Some smocks worn in the 1970s were back buttoning with extensive smocking. Some worn in the 1990s dis not have smocking and the buttons were set off on one side at the front. They are characterically worn with wie white Peter Pan collars. Usually they are all white. Some younger boys might have white collars with various designs. I do not yet have details, but this looks to be a national regulation and not a uniform adopted by individual schools. The smocks are always worn with long pants. Parents have to buy uniforms, pens, pencils and notebooks. I am not sure when this style was adopted or why. It shows a clear European influence, either Italian or French. On of the reforms of Ataturk anfd te Turkish Republic in the 1920s was the adoption of western dress. The smock was at the time widely worn by French and Italian school children. It may well have been adopted at that time as part of the western dress reforms. A HBC contributor who traveled to Turkey in the 1970s remembers seeing Turish boys in their characteristic short smocks. All the boys he saw wore long pants with their smock schook uniform. He doesn't remember if the girls wore the same uniform. His main recollection is seeing groups of boys all over Turkey. He traveled everywhere, except the Black Sea Coast. All the boys he saw eore shiny black "mini-smocks" with large white Peter Pan collars. The site he says was so common that it was alnost part of the landscape. He is not sure, however, if all of the elementary school bous wore them. He thinks that it may have been mostly the younger boys.
Students in Middle and High Schools also must wear uniforms, however I do not have details on the styles. After the Attaturk Revolution I believe that smocks were intoduced as the school uniform with the launch of the new schhol system in the mid-1920s. I can not yet confirm this, but it appears to be the case. Turkish school children have continued wearing smocks with wide Peter Pan collars ti this day. There appear to be some changes in styles with boys now often wearing front buttoning smocks.
Figure 3.--This engraving from a Turkish banknote shows Kemal Attaturk with school children--many wearing smocks. It shows that the smock uniform for school children was adopted in a fairly early period of the Turkish Republic. Click on the image to see the full note. |
HBC is not sure what types of clothes or uniforms that boys wore to school during the long Ottoman period. After the Attaturk Revolution I believe that smocks were intoduced as the school uniform with the launch of the new schhol system in the mid-1920s. I can not yet confirm this, but it appears to be the case. Turkish school cgildren have continued wearing smocks with wide Peter Pan collars ti this day. There appear to be some changes in styles with boys now often wearing front buttoning smocks. A HBC reader reports in 19??, "I went to Turkey recently and during a long journey on a bus I noticed what Turkish boys wear to school. As our bus stopped for a short period near a school at "leaving time". Elementary boys tend to wear only a short school smock, usually blue with white Peter Pan collars with a small version of the Turkish flag on each collar. Some differ with double buttoned fronts and some have a single line of buttons along the back. They wear no noticeable other uniform garments apart from this. Senior boys tend to wear black shoes, long grey trousers, a white shirt and a solid colored tie, i.e., usually blue red or black. On one occasion I noticed one boy wearing a tartan tie in a different town."
The Turkish schjool smocks appear to be rather short cut smocks. Back buttoning smocks have been the traditional style. Some have smocking. Some boys wear front buttoning smocks--often with the buttons offset to the side. They are commonly worn with wide white Peter Pan collars, but without bows.
Turkish boys appear to wear blue smocks. Although I have noted various shades of blue, the boys only seem to wear blue smocks. Some Turkish smocks look very dark. They are either dark navy blur or perhaps black.
Some Turkish movies povide images of the children in their school uniforms. The boys commonly wear the blue school smocks.
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