UAE Sports Federation for School and University Education Institutions develops implementation strategies for School Games project to promote priority sports

H.E Sheikh Suhail bin Butti Al Maktoum, Executive Director of Sports Development Sector of General Sports Authority, and Secretary General of the Emirates Sports Federation for School and University Education Institutions, met with representatives of priority sports federations included in the School Games project to develop strategies for integrating priority sports into the educational institutions. The strategies aim at leveraging school tournaments as a means to identify new talents in these sports and provide assistance to empower them.

The School Games Project includes eight different sports, including the priority sports (Judo, Fencing, Archery, Bow and Arrow, and Athletics), as well as Taekwondo, Badminton, and Swimming. This will further promote the presence of these sports in schools, enhance participation and provide the sports clubs and federations with unique talents.

Al Maktoum said: “We look forward to collaborating with the educational institutions to achieve the Sports Sector Strategy 2032, aimed at enhancing our Olympic presence. In partnership with the School and University Federation, we aim to make the best use of the opportunities between sport federations and the Ministry of Education to implement the technical strategies designed by the federations for schools. The strategies focus on enhancing the training of the students and encouraging them to participate in school tournaments.”

“We support the efforts undertaken by the federations in developing strategies for the Ministry, targeting at the highest levels of synergy between work mechanisms and training. This will positively reflect on development of talents, as well as enable federations with the opportunity to use the educational sector institutions to effectively engage students from all over the schools in the country. Additionally, this will also assist in identifying new sport talents and create new Emirati champions for the nation,” he added.

Furthermore, the initiative seeks to ensure that schools and university education institutions receive the greatest advantage from the partnerships established by the Emirates Sports Federation. The federations have established technical strategies with the intention of creating a system for identifying and empowering student skills. Utilizing the relationship established by the School and University Federation between the educational sector institutions and federations, which is a link that strengthens collaboration between diverse sectors and aids in luring more talent, this cooperation with the educational institutions will determine the practicality of adopting them.

His Excellency gave an overview of the aims of the School and University Federation to the representatives of the sports federations. He went on further to explain that there are three stages to the school tournaments. The first one includes all the students who wish to participate in all tournaments held in various schools. The second one consists of competitions in which schools of each Emirate will compete among themselves to better prepare athletes for the next stage. The third stage of the event takes place at the state level.

The meeting also discussed several changes that will be made to the system for identifying talents in schools, including offering the sports teachers more authority and choosing talents from the age group of 13 to 18. It was noted that the new changes will facilitate performance indicators to track and assess talents.

The Sports Coordination Council introduced the list of priority sports during their third meeting, with the aim of enhancing UAE’s presence in the Olympic games and boosting the opportunities for continental and international achievements.