Education Greek’s education during Turkish occupation took place in local schools and academies, with the financial aid of wealthy Greeks living in the Ottoman Empire or abroad, with the support and guidance of the Church and under the supervision of the Ottoman authorities.
With the term <secret school> it is referred by the Greeks, according to conrtoversial opinions, the hidden and forbidden by the Turks teaching that took place during Turkish occupation, either because the education of Greeks was forbidden in some aerias during certain periods or because within the permitted education there were lessons of national consciousness and independence. The <secret school> was teached as a reality for many decades in the Greek modern schools until the â&#x20AC;&#x2122;70, within the history courses. Today for some it is a myth, for others a legend with historical base and for some others it is an element of the oral tradition, with various settlements and monasteries to be reffered as places that secret schools were in action. Occasionally, there were periods that in certain districts the operation of Greek schools was becoming difficult or even forbidden, mainly when they were linked to liberational movements or uprisings. Moreover, it is recognised that the territorial expansion of the Ottoman Empire led to the decentralization of the state power. Until the end of the 18th century the power was transferred to regional state officials and the sultan had kept only his symbolic power. So, Charles Tuckermann, an american consul in Greece after the revolution, notices that during Turkish occupation < the Greek
schools were few and remote and were supported by the voluntary contribution of various organisations and from greeks living abroad. The freedom of teaching was not more than the freedom of political activities and the education has its share of the national misery >. The hostility of the Turks against the schools is implied by the german proffesor G.A. Noehden in 1820, who notices that the well known school of Milies in the region of Pilio, was capable of cultivating education because < it was far away of the envious eye of the turkish governor and aditionally, it was secured by his threats with special previleges and protections, granted by the central government>.