Olympic Spirit
Greece has been the cradle of sports, the birthplace of the Olympics Games. The deepest sports spirit was developed and the noblest competitive spirit sparkled in Greece.
The City of Athens, responding to its highly important cultural heredity and the Olympic spirit, which constitutes a double nature of sports and cultural value and a way of life, seeks to hand down the sports spirit to young children and youth through several actions and innovative programmes.
The respect to other people, the learning and observance of rules in collective life, the feeling of solidarity, effort, “fair play”, integration in a team, that is the promotion of citizenship, solidarity and activation, constitute values that promote the programmes of physical education that are implemented by the City of Athens in its Child Care Centers, its events and its sports facilities.
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Sports policy
A. Municipality of Athens
The Municipality of Athens has created a wide network of facilities and infrastructures with the aim to cultivate the sports spirit to very young ages. Sports in the city of Athens starts from the child care center, the school and the neighborhood with physical education programmes specially designed depending on the age range of the target groups. Sports spirit is cultivated from the very young ages and the aim is to make physical exercise a daily way of life for citizens.
The organizations through which the Municipality of Athens realizes its policy for this area are the Athens Municipal Crèche and Child Care Center (DBA) and the City of Athens Youth and Sports Organization (ONA).
Athens Municipal Crèche and Child Care Center
DBA constitutes one of the largest networks of pre-school education and child care internationally, comprising 98 child care centers in different city districts. The child care centers accommodate 6.000 children aged from 8 months to 5 years old. Besides the educational programme, which is implemented in the child care centres of the Athens Municipal Crèche and Child Care Centres, since 2005 there has been an pilot programme of Physical Education, targeting at the sensitization of children, parents and educators with regard to healthy diet, lifelong exercise and the regular psychosomatic development of children this age. 1.200 children aged from 3 to 5 years old, 110 educators and 2 PE instructors participated in this programme.
The assessment revealed the huge success of the programme and the great response from children, parents and educators.
In terms of the programme «You need exercise» the Division of Educational Programmes and the Department of Educational Programmes and Events of the child care centers of DBA have planned a new programme of Physical Education redetermining the aims of the previously implemented pilot programme with the aim to harmonize it with the philosophy and the general framework of the interstate programme.
Giving great emphasis on the sensitization of the young children of the city about the need for physical education in the afternoon as well, DBA created the first Workshop of Educational, Cultural and Recreational Occupation of Preschool Children, which is open from 13.30 – 19.30 giving the chance to children aged 3-6 years old to participate to different programmes and specialized programmes of physical education free of charge.
City of Athens Youth and Sports Organization (ONA)
In Athens, under the jurisdiction of ONA there are almost 230 sports venues, in particular 142 playgrounds, 14 gyms , 61 outdoor and 5 indoor fields, 3 swimming pools and 8 open-air sports venues, where programmes for all ages are implemented. Simultaneously, there have been established annual sports events such as the Cycling Tour, The Athens Fun Run and others.
B. General Secretariat of Sports (it belongs to the Deputy Ministry of Culture and Tourism which belongs to the Ministry of Culture)
Jurisdiction of the General Secretariat of Sports is the national executive planning as well as the overall responsibility for everything that has to do with the progress and the better organization and operation of sports in our country.
C. Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs
Under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs are the kindergartens, the primary schools and the all-day primary schools.
Municipal Promotion of Sports
Target: Construction of new sport facilities, continuous improvement of the quality of services and the establishment of new institutions which promote the athletic ideal to all ages.
Therefore:
- Preservation of sports venues
- Financing of sports programmes and events
- Continuous update of citizens and children
- Innovative Pilot Programmes of Physical Education (PE) in the child care centers of the Athens Municipal Crèche and Child Care Centers
- Point of reference: promotion of a healthy way of life and physical activity
Sports Clubs / Associations
Sports clubs include different sports divisions from all the sports federations, which offer their services to children aged 5+ with the goal to initiate them to the secrets of sports and their thereafter progression to the sports of their preference. A part of their subsidising comes from the Municipality of Athens and the General Secretariat of Sports.
School and Day Care System
There are primary schools and the all-day primary schools.
Primary Schools: The goal of Physical Education in the compulsory education is to contribute by priority to the students’ corporal development and to help them at the same time with their spiritual and intellectual culture as well as their harmonic inclusion to society. Children have 90’ exercise per week.
All-Day Primary Schools: The target is to give children this age the chance for extra physical activity in relation to the already existing curriculum. The timetable includes 360’ of PE lessons per week for the first two grades of Primary School and 120’ per week for the rest of the classes.
The actions of the axis “Sports” of the programme Olympic Education aim at making schools and educational premises beehives of cultural creativity and sports education, taking for granted the learning and educational importance of sports as a social phenomenon and its acknowledged high acceptance by all the society and especially young people.
Sportssystem in Greece
