The United Arab Emirates has made jiu-jitsu part of school. Its Ministry of Education has renewed the programme to 2029: 279 public schools, about 150,000 boys and girls, 488 coaches. It began with 14 schools in 2008.
Melbourne — On 16 September the UAE's Ministry of Education renewed the contract that puts jiu-jitsu into the country's public schools. The operator, Palms Sports, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi conglomerate IHC, will run it for three more years from 1 September 2026, for AED 600.5 million, the largest contract by value in the company’s history. The programme now reaches 279 schools and nearly 150,000 boys and girls, taught by 488 specialist coaches.
It began small. In 2008 jiu-jitsu was taught to grades six and seven in 14 government schools in Abu Dhabi. A year later it was in 42, in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, six of them girls' schools, with 81 coaches brought in from Brazil and the lessons held in physical education classes. In 2022–23 Palms Sports reported 125 schools and more than 59,000 students training weekly.
For a sport that most children still meet in a private gym, if at all, that is a remarkable thing: a government putting it on the school timetable, paying for it, and hiring coaches to teach it. To see how remarkable, this paper looked at where else jiu-jitsu has reached the classroom. In Brazil it is in the schools of some cities. Elsewhere it is a bill, or a claim. A national public-school programme on the UAE’s scale, this paper did not find.
One thing the record does not say is whether the UAE lessons are compulsory for every pupil. None of the sources this paper read states it, and this paper does not assert it.
Every line below is taken from the source named in it. "Optional" and "permitted" are the sources' own terms.
| Where | Scale | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | National · 279 public schools · ~150,000 students · 488 coaches | Ministry of Education programme, renewed to 2029. Running since 2008. | Al Bayan, 16 Sep 2026 · The National, 9 Sep 2009 |
| Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | City · about 100 municipal schools at launch | "Projeto Escola de Lutas", 2019. Jiu-jitsu among five combat sports. Optional. | Lance!, Oct 2019 |
| Belo Horizonte, Brazil | City · numbers not published | "Leandro Lo: Jiu-Jitsu na Escola", enacted 1 Oct 2024. Schools may teach it after hours. Start date not set. | Hoje em Dia, Oct 2024 |
| Santa Catarina, Brazil | State · public basic education | Bill PL 0321/2025 would make jiu-jitsu an elective. In committee; not law. | ALESC |
| Shanghai and Suzhou, China | Unknown · no schools named | A Shanghai gym owner says his curriculum is "mandatory" from kindergarten to university in partner schools. No official document found. | BJJEE, May 2026 |
| Korea | None found | Children's jiu-jitsu is growing in private gyms; no school programme. | Hankyung, 7 Jul 2026 |
The country that gave the sport its name has no national school programme. What it has is local law. Rio de Janeiro put jiu-jitsu into municipal schools in 2019 as one of five combat sports, offered as an option. Belo Horizonte enacted a programme in October 2024 named for Leandro Lo, the world champion shot dead in 2022, which allows schools to teach it after hours; the city had not set a start date. In Santa Catarina a bill to make it an elective across the state's public schools is still in committee.
In May the grappling site BJJEE reported that schools in Shanghai and Suzhou had made jiu-jitsu a graded, mandatory subject. Its only source is the owner of a Shanghai gym, quoted saying the course runs "from kindergarten all the way to the university". The article names no school and cites no education authority. This paper could not find one either. Until a school or a document can be named, it stays a claim.
The country that has gone furthest down this road did it with a different art. In December 2006 Japan rewrote its Basic Act on Education to add, among the aims of schooling, respect for tradition and culture. In 2008 the Central Council for Education asked that martial arts be taught so pupils could engage more deeply with "Japan's own tradition and culture", and the revised course of study made them compulsory. Since fiscal 2012 every junior high school has had to teach a martial art in the first or second year, to boys and girls. Schools choose judo, kendo or sumo; about two-thirds chose judo.
The UAE puts its hope in other words. In 2009 an Abu Dhabi Education Council spokesman told The National that one of the main things pupils learn is "to respect their opponents and to win and lose graciously". This September’s announcement says the programme seeks to instil "discipline, resilience, self-confidence, respect, commitment and teamwork", and Fouad Darwish, chief executive of Palms Sports, said it "is about much more than teaching a sport". Two countries, two arts, one wager: that a mat in a school hall teaches something beyond the technique.
Japan's experience also shows what the wager asks of a school system. Before the change, critics pointed to 74 judo deaths in school physical education and club activities between 1990 and 2009, on Japan Sport Council figures, and in March 2012 the ministry told schools not to begin until they could teach it safely. The UAE programme is taught by 488 specialist jiu-jitsu coaches.
Against that, the UAE programme is a different order of thing: a ministry contract, a single operator, coaches hired for the purpose, and a public price. It has grown from 14 schools to 279 in eighteen years. The operator calls it the largest scheme of its kind in the world. On the evidence this paper could find, nobody else has yet built one like it.
The UAE figures — 279 schools, nearly 150,000 students, 488 coaches, AED 600.5 million, three years from 1 September 2026, Ministry of Education — and the words of the announcement and of Fouad Darwish are from the Emirates News Agency’s report of 16 September 2026 (WAM), confirmed by Al Bayan the same day. The programme's early years are from The National (9 September 2009). The 2022–23 figures are from Palms Sports' own site.
The search for other countries covered English, Portuguese, Russian and Korean sources and the federations' own sites. "Not found" means this paper found no public record of a national programme; it is not proof that none exists. If you know of one, write to tips@matside.com.au and it will be checked and added.
Japan's 2006 Basic Act on Education is quoted from the government's official translation; the 2008 Central Council recommendation from the Nagano Prefecture Board of Education (our translation); the start in fiscal 2012 and the March 2012 safety notice from MEXT; the 1990–2009 figures from Fujita Eiten in imidas (March 2012); the share choosing judo from the Japan Society. This paper does not claim that compulsory martial arts changed Japan; it reports what Japan said it wanted from them.