Enderun School

The Enderun School (Ottoman Turkish: اندرون مکتب, Enderûn Mektebi) was a palace school and boarding school mostly for the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire, which primarily recruited students via devşirme, a system of the Islamization of Christian children for serving the Ottoman government in bureaucratic, managerial, and Janissary military positions. Over the centuries, the Enderun School was fairly successful in creating Ottoman statesmen by drawing among the empire's various ethnic groups and giving them a common Muslim education. The school was run by the "Inner Service" (Enderûn) of the Ottoman palace and had both academic and military purposes. The graduates were expected to devote themselves to government service and be free of links to lower social groups.

The Enderun School's gifted education program has been called the world's first institutionalized education for the gifted.

The growth of Ottoman Empire is attributed and was dependent on the selection and education of statesmen. A vital component of Mehmet II's goal to revive the Roman Empire was to establish a special school to select the best youngsters within the Empire and to mold them for government. Mehmet II improved the existing palace school founded by his father, Murat II and established the Enderun Academy (Enderun) in Istanbul.

The third courtyard of the Topkapı Palace was surrounded by the Imperial Treasury, the Pavilion of the Holy Mantle, and the buildings of the Palace School, which educated the top tier of students from Enderun as well as princes of the House of Osman. There were seven halls or grades within the Palace School, and within each hall there were 12 teachers responsible for the students' mental and academic development. Students wore special uniforms designated by their achievement level, and Miller indicated that additional buildings included the library, mosque, music conservatories, dormitories, and baths.

...
Wikipedia