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The Savaştepe Village Institute (Savaştepe Köy Enstitüsü)

The village institution project was a program for educating teachers in the newly founded Turkish Republic. In those times, there were not enough teachers nor enough schools for educating both teachers and people. The priority of the project was to raise enough teachers for the whole country. It also aimed to give the bare minimum education for rural people to learn modern agriculture, basic building skills, and playing musical instruments. With this motivation, the institution was established by Sıtkı Akkay (an eminent inspector of the National Education Ministry) in 1940, in the Savaştepe district of Balıkesir province. Savaştepe town center has a railroad between Manisa and Balıkesir, so this infrastructure has a clear effect on establishing a school in Savaştepe.

The Foundation Of The Institute

Before Savaştepe, there was a prototype institution in Manisa Horozköy. Original idea was to establish a school at Horozköy named “educator course (eğitmen kursu)”. But Sıtkı Akkay decided that Horozköy is not a proper institution settlement and he started searching for new areas. The municipality of Manisa province did not help him to find new lands. Therefore, the minister of education Hayrullah Örs decided to change the province and found Balıkesir-Savaştepe suitable. Sıtkı Akkay travelled to Savaştepe in 1940. His first impression was not good at all. When first he arrived, there was no school nor any building for turning into a school. Savaştepe was a very rural town and locals did not show him great hospitality either. Yet, he decided to stay and tried to prepare the land for establishment. Also, he tried to communicate and cooperate with the locals. The main importance of the land was its closeness to the railroad. Moving infrastructural materials and equipment was so hard and expensive at that time. Turkey was a newly founded country and neither its land roads nor railroads were enough to carry goods properly. When the construction began, the local community did not help and they had to seek help from nearby villages. Despite all resistance and hardship, the institution started its education life in May 1940.

Campus Plan

The institution is 57 km far away from the city center of Balıkesir. It occupies 29 hectares of land. It has mass housing for teachers and students. It also includes a sickroom, tailor, library, carpenter, smithy, farming fields, cinema saloon, football and, sports saloon in it.

The situation of the Institution Today

After the cancellation of the project in 1953, Savaştepe institution turned into an ordinary school and kept its mission of schooling in a different manner.