The State Minister of Education Celal Yard？mc？ and His Activities in this Role

Celal Yard？mc？ was born in 1911 in Dog？ubayaz？t, Ag？r？. Yard？mc？ served as the Deputy of Ag？r？ in periods IX, X and XI of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. During his time as deputy he served as Minister of Justice, State and National Education. Celal Yard？mc？, one of the most important names in terms of putting the educational policies of the Democratic Party into practice, took important steps in the expansion of foreign language education in public schools. Celal Yard？mc？ was one of the most important architects in the field of education in the 1950s in terms of growing the relationship between the US and Turkey. His period with the State Ministry of Education established close relations with Turkey in the field of education in the United States. Therefore, looking at Celal Yard？mc？’s educational activities in this period will help to understand Turkish-US relations in the field of education. Celal Yard？mc？’s greatest impact on the Turkish Education System, which played an important role in the establishment and development of the Erzurum, Aegean, Black Sea Technical and Middle East Technical universities was in the field of secondary education. When Celal Yard？mc？ established the maarif colleges of foreign language education in Turkey, he engaged the services of a foreign teacher to support such schools. The maarif colleges, which provide Turkish-English education, formed the core of the anatolian high schools which are today considered as one of the most important elements of secondary education. Celal Yard？mc？ significantly increased the number of schools in the primary and secondary education sector. Although he worked hard to legislate Primary Eductaion Law through Parliament, he did not succeed in this and this is why he was often criticized by opposition MPs. Celal Yard？mc？, who placed great importance on public education and teacher training, faced opposition on the subject of university autonomy. Celal Yard？mc？, who was arrested after the May 27 coup, was tried in Yass？ada and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was later pardoned and he became the Istanbul Deputy in the sixteenth term of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Yard？mc？ died on 10 January 1986 in Istanbul