A meeting was held in Kayseri to prepare for the 2026–2027 school year and discuss school safety. (İHA Photo)
Türkiye’s nearly 18 million students and more than 1 million teachers will return to schools on Sept. 14 under heightened security measures introduced in the wake of a series of school shooting incidents.
Following a three-month summer break, schools have completed preparations for the first school bell, while security inspections have been stepped up across the board, ranging from school entrances to student transportation services.
The measures were intensified after two separate incidents in April. In the first, a former student went to his former school in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa and opened fire. No one other than the assailant, who later took his own life, was killed in the attack.
A day later, a student entered a school in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş with a firearm and opened fire, killing nine students and a teacher.
The incidents sent shockwaves across the country and sparked a nationwide debate over school security measures. Authorities have also detained hundreds of suspects accused of planning school shooting attacks on social media, with the latest operation carried out on Sept. 11.
For the first time this year, a new “schoolyard officer” scheme has also been introduced nationwide to bolster security at schools. More than 3,000 schoolyard security officers will begin duty at schools across all provinces on Sept. 14. Responsible for helping ensure school security, the officers will receive training from police personnel.
All schools in Istanbul will be equipped with metal detectors supplied by the Istanbul Governor’s Office this year. Searches, inspections and security checks using the detectors will be conducted where deemed necessary.
Turnstiles have also been installed at the entrances of schools with large student populations and extensive school grounds. Police teams will patrol outside many schools on the first day of classes, while security camera systems have been expanded across all schools.
Parent meetings nationwide will be scheduled and conducted exclusively through the “School Appointment System.” Unscheduled visits are prohibited. Only a student’s parents or legal guardians will be granted entry to the facility.
Meanwhile, Türkiye’s Education Ministry will organize an event titled “Let Kites Not Be Shot, Let the Sky Belong to Children” from Sept. 14 to 18, aiming to raise awareness of the situation in Gaza and allow children to send messages of peace into the sky by flying kites.
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The initiative comes in response to Israel’s threats of military action and neighborhood evacuations in Gaza after several non-explosive children’s kites drifted across the border into southern Israeli communities.
