The "First Step into Sport" project, a collaborative effort between the Youth and Sports Ministry and the National Education Ministry, is paving the way for elementary school students across 81 provinces in Türkiye to explore the world of sports.
According to a statement from the Youth and Sports Ministry, the project was launched under the "Sports Branch Education in Primary Schools Protocol" signed between the two ministries in 2022.
The project aims to instill a habit of regular physical activity in elementary school students, provide access to sports activities, introduce students to various sports, increase their participation in social life through sports, promote the spread of sports, and cultivate a sports culture.
Initiated as a pilot program in eight provinces during the 2021-2022 academic year, the "First Step into Sport" project expanded to all 81 provinces in the following academic year, offering training in 26 different sports.
With the participation of 3,899 coaches, the project reached 347,257 students in 3,303 schools.
This year, the project reached 479,466 students in 3,834 schools with the participation of 4,344 coaches, offering training in sports such as athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, bocce, gymnastics, darts, fencing, football, futsal, floor curling, wrestling, folk dance, handball, judo, karate, kickboxing, table tennis, muay thai, archery, chess, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, swimming and wushu.
In a statement, Youth and Sports Minister Osman Aşkın Bak emphasized their efforts to popularize sports.
"Our children spend a large part of their day at school. Therefore, the best way to introduce them to sports is to integrate sports into their education. When you support scientific and theoretical education with sports, you also positively support their academic life. We launched our 'First Step into Sport' project in 2022 in eight pilot provinces, and we have been implementing it in all 81 provinces for two years now. With this project, we are not only introducing our children to sports but also preventing them from acquiring harmful habits," he outlined.
Minister Bak highlighted the achievement of golden generations in different sports over the years and the prideful victories in international competitions, emphasizing the need to stabilize the historic successes in various sports.
"In recent years, we have achieved historic successes in different sports. We need to stabilize these successes. The 'First Step into Sport' project will help us raise athletes from the grassroots. We want to raise a Turkish youth that is more active in sports, in line with the goals of the "Century of Türkiye" outlined by our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. We aim to have athletes who bring back medals from every international competition they participate in, who make our national anthem heard around the world, and who proudly wave our crescent-starred flag."
