Years at the Sivas Military Middle School
In recounting those days, İsmet İnönü once famously said, “I was a late bloomer. I failed a year at the Sivas Military Middle School.” This incident; however, had taught him a lesson. He completed the middle school curriculum in five years instead of four. He would later cherish, with much gratitude, the memory of his math teacher Ömer Efendi, who had failed him. In fact, his second son was named Ömer.
İnönü began to learn French during those years. He graduated from middle school in 1895. As there was no military academy in Sivas, he studied at the Sivas Civil School of Secondary Education for nearly a year. Unable to warm up to the school, he transferred to the high school of the Imperial School of Military Engineering in İstanbul in 1897 and took an important step towards his military career.
