The Role of Education in Agricultural Productivity: The Case of Village Institutes in Turkey, 1940-1966

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between education and agricultural productivity through the Turkish phenomenon of Village Institutes (VIs). Having emerged as the fourth step of the agrarian reform in 1937, the VIs provided a 5 year secondary education and 3 optional years of higher education to successful graduates of 5 year elementary village schools. Based on the principles of “learning by doing”, the VIs’ intensive work education curriculum was aimed at training village teachers who would then diffuse their knowledge to the rural in order to achieve a nation-wide growth in agricultural productivity. The results of the study show that a statistically significant positive relationship exists between the number of VI-graduate teachers and per area wheat output at province level. Furthermore, a positive and significant relationship is traced between the number of VI-graduate teachers and literacy rates. Nevertheless, a number of weaknesses pertaining to the analysis methods leave a variety of options to improve the results of this study.