Ken’ân Rifâî started his duty as the Director of Education of Kosovo Province on April 12, 1893. He was also the president of the education council. He served as a French teacher in schools in the region.
Kosovo was a region of strategic importance for the Ottoman Empire and during the reign of Abdülhamid II, the aim was to ensure unity in the region through education. For this reason, Kosovo was a region where serious reform movements were implemented, especially in the field of education.
For Ken’ân Rifâî, the Kosovo years were the most active period in the implementation and dissemination of “usûl-i jedîde”, the most important term of the educational understanding of the period. In the Ottoman education system, “usûl-i cedîde” was a term that emerged at the beginning of the 19th century and expressed the modernization efforts in education. This system was developed under the influence of the West, especially in the field of military and technical education. Unlike traditional educational methods, Usûl-i cedîde adopted a more systematic and scientific approach.
Ken’ân Rifâî played an active role in providing a budget for the opening of new schools in the region, and worked hard on issues such as the regular collection of education taxes and the transfer of foundation revenues to the education budget. The increase in the number of libraries and schools in the province and the initiative for the first industrial school in Kosovo were also realized during his tenure.
Another issue that Ken’ân Rifâî was concerned with in Kosovo, as in Monastir, was the rapidly increasing number of foreign schools in the region due to foreign interventions.
Despite the difficulties in the region, under Ken’ân Rifāʾī’s leadership, the education system in Kosovo evolved to meet the needs of the modernization process.
All these efforts attracted the attention of the Ministry of Education and he was promoted in rank for his services. His activities as Director of Education in Kosovo Province were exemplary at the time and shaped subsequent education policies.
Memories
On a journey Ken’ân Rifâî took to inspect schools, he had to cross the Shar Mountains. The administrators try to prevent him by telling him that these mountains are a hotbed of bandit gangs that cause trouble in the region. However, when it became clear that he was determined, he was accompanied by two gendarmes. Shortly after setting out, Ken’ân Rifâî sent the gendarmes home and proceeded to the summit of the mountain. Here he encounters Rüstem Karabaş, the leader of the bandit gang that gave the regional governor the most trouble. After greeting him in Albanian and chatting with him for a while, he continues on his way. After this inspection, Rifâî, whose work in Kosovo attracted the attention of the Ministry of Education, was promoted and recognized for his services in the region.
In addition to his official duties, Ken’ân Rifâî was also given representational duties that required high diligence. He was assigned to be the host to the son-in-law of Queen Victoria of England, who was residing in Skopje for a short time. In this role, he took a close interest in the Prince, and by speaking European languages such as English and French, he helped the Prince get to know the high-level bureaucrats of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1895, Ken’ân Rifâî asked for permission from the Ministry of Education due to his heart condition and came to Istanbul for a while. It is possible that this ailment stemmed from the tense working environment in Kosovo.
