9,500 police officers deployed in Istanbul as new academic year begins

ISTANBUL

Some 9,500 police officers have been deployed to all 39 districts of Istanbul as hundreds of thousands of students head to schools. 

The academic year started on Sept. 10 for first, fifth and ninth graders seven days earlier than other students because of a scheme dubbed “adaptation week.”

The scheme is designed to make sure students in those three grades do not have problems adapting to their schools.

In order to ensure the safety of the students and their teachers, more than 9,000 police officers have been deployed to ferry ports and metro and metrobus stations.

“The purpose of these measures is to make sure students and teachers arrive at their schools and return home safely. Some 850 police teams, two helicopters and nine police boats are taking part in this operation,” Mustafa Çalışkan, Istanbul’s police chief, said in a statement.

The mobile police teams will take necessary security measures around “risky” schools, the statement added.

Units from the traffic department will also carry out checks for school buses to make sure that the children commute safely between their schools and homes.

The new semester is set to begin on Sept. 17 for the remaining school children.

The first semester will end on Jan. 18, 2018 and the semester break will last until Feb. 1, 2019.

The second semester is scheduled to start on Feb. 4, 2019 and will end on June 14, 2019.

There are some 18 million students and one million teachers in Turkey’s schools.