The Reaction of Local People of Kurdistan to Modern Education During Reza Shah's Reign

The high position and capacity of the official education in nationalization project led the Reza Shah government to have a special look at developing education.Since one of the major purposes of this institute was improving and spreading Persian language as a salient factor in nationalism and strengthening of national unity, the spread and establishment of educational institutes had a cardinal importance in tribal and minority districts. The purpose of this study is understanding why and how of responding of by local people of Kurdistan to the development of public schools. In this regard, it has been tried to provide an answer to these questions by descriptive, analytical and by exploring archival documents: What was the quality of administering the Pahlavi government’s educational policies? What role did military commanders play in the establishment of schools and the development of education in Kurdistan? How did common groups welcome new schools and what was the opinion of people towards the aforementioned schools? The chief hypothesis of this study is that the religious beliefs and traditional pattern of society, and the use of force and coercion led to the lack of welcoming new schools by people. Findings of the research also shows that some other factors such as the appointment of non-native teachers, and the need for teaching lessons in Persian, the awful economic and livelihood condition of the residents, lack of consistency between the school textbooks and needs of society and etc. also have contributed to these events.