24 Feb 2024

Following a long pause on sporting activities in schools, a tripartite agreement between Botswana Football Association (BFA), Ministry of Basic Education and Ministry of Youth Sport and Culture Development (MYSCD) is becoming a reality as BFA gets access to schools to engage pupils in football sporting activities.

The trio reached the consensus in June last year, to introduce FIFA ‘Football for Schools’ programme to allow for children to play football in schools. Ministry of  Education and Skills Development Principal Education officer, Mr Morgan Letsholathebe said, “We have given BFA access into our schools with a guarantee that there will be learners to play football. We encourage more teachers to volunteer to coach pupils,” he said. He said teachers had over the years volunteered in sporting activities and therefore appreciated them for embarking in professional coaching with BFA to be able to impart necessary skills, which children might need to develop in football.

He said they had signed an agreement with MYSC and BFA on behalf of FIFA.  Thus he encouraged the regional football associations nationwide to draw in school heads as well, as their leadership role was critical to supporting football at grassroots level. “We are starting a long journey, let us work hard, form collaborations with various stakeholders to make it a success,” he told coaches who recently acquired a basic BFA D-license coaching certificate in Tsabong.

For his part, the ministry’s sport and recreation programmes officer, Tshepo Letshwiti said the FIFA ‘football for schools’ programme started in 2019 in Lebanon and Puerto Rico and then spread to other nations including Botswana.The programme, he said, was designed for primary school level pupils aged between four and eleven and those in the age bracket of 12-14 at Junior secondary schools.

BFA scheduled to pilot the programme in five football regions locally namely; Nhabe, Tsabong, Southern, Gaborone and Tswapong region, adding that the FIFA ‘football for schools’ programme was different from other BFA programmes designed for grassroots football development.The programme, he said, encompassed life skills component and it was targeted at giving boys and girls the opportunity to discover their skills at a young age. “This programme is carried out in collaboration with MYSC, Ministry of Education and Skills Development as well as Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for the reason that the football grounds belonged to local government through councils. They help us, and we help them as BFA to ensure that pupils play on safe grounds. When the programme becomes successful we will spread it to all 17 regions nationwide,” he said.Letshwiti said they anticipated that by March there would be a clear direction on how sports would be incorporatedback into schools programmes.For his part, the BFA technical director, Tshepo Mphukuthi said the programme was targeted at 700 million people across the globe as it was a mass participation one under FIFA, supported by UNESCO and WHO.

 “it is targeted at developing a well rounded human being, leaders, instilling life skills, developing cognitive skills, emotional skills as well as physical skills,” he said.He said the football authority shall do its part of equipping schools with necessary material. It shall provide each school with 30 footballs, adding that there were three categories and each one shall have 10 balls.Furthermore, he said each school shall be given 50 cones, and each participating pupil shall be given a training kit. Additionally, he said, BFA shall provide P500 allowance for the coaches where regional coordinators shall receive P100 for airtime monthly.He said BFA shall continue to monitor the programme and therefore expected timely and thorough feedback from regional coordinators. ends