30 Dec
In keeping with its commitment to developing soccer, the most popular sport in Myanmar, the Ministry of Health and Sports is laying a framework, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and the Myanmar Football Federation, for helping schoolchildren enjoy greater access to football.
The new school curriculum includes sports and physical exercise as a compulsory subject. However, the scheme is yet to see complete adoption in schools as the new curriculum is in the transitional period.
The new curriculum aims to contribute to the education, development, and empowerment of children through sports.
FIFA’s ‘Football for Schools’ program aims to incorporate the sport into physical education by improving access to football as well as increasing the contribution of sports – and notably football – towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
This initiative highlights the powerful role played by sports as a tool for education. Teaching football in schools will help disseminate sporting values such as team spirit and respect. The program will also help develop life skills such as self-confidence and foster equality between girls and boys.
The WFP-FIFA partnership will raise the profile of our school feeding program, and we believe that would mean more well-fed students who will be ready to learn and create brighter futures for themselves, their communities, and their nation.
The ‘Football for Schools’ program uses football as a hook to get children involved in schools to play football, but more importantly to teach life skills through the sport.
The program even has a mobile application that has all football sessions as well as life skills sessions linked to it. Physical education teachers or other teachers, who may not have any experience running such sessions, can easily understand how to include the program in their curricular or extra-curricular activities through the app.
Football, which is popular not just in Myanmar but also in other countries, can help bind people into a stronger community.
The onus is on the Ministry of Health and Sports, the Ministry of Education, and the Myanmar Football Federation to work together on the wide-scale implementation of the program with complete commitment.
GNLM
