IAAF partners with Ugandan stakeholders to take athletics to school kids

The Ministry of Education and Sports of Uganda, the IAAF and the Uganda Athletics Federation have signed a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement to develop the Kids' Athletics programme within the Ugandan primary schools.

Last week, the agreement entered its implementation phase.

Having sent five kits of Kids' Athletics equipment and all the needed educational material, the IAAF launched a local lecturers' course for 35 candidates, in close cooperation with the MoES and the UAF.

The participants represented 22 provinces of the country, a number of Ugandan Universities and the UAF.

The course curriculum included theory and practical sessions, and a specific workshop has been conducted on the way to improvise the sports equipment from the local environment.

This 2-hour workshop has been much appreciated by all the participants. Being aware that the athletic equipment is of some consequence to the development of Kids' Athletics, this is a way to help them solve the problem of the lack of equipment in their schools.

The improvised ‘Ugandan equipment' made by the participants has been used to organise the KA competition for 48 kids.

The newly trained lecturers should now start to train PE teachers who will be in charge to roll out the Kids' Athletics programme in all the schools of their provinces.

For this five-year project, the MoES has undertaken to place sports equipment including twelve Kids' Athletics Kits at the disposal of the participants, as well as making the facilities available to host the relevant training and advanced courses.

The UAF has undertaken to provide five Kids' Athletics Kits required for the organisation of pilot courses. The Kids' Athletics programme has even been included in the plan of action of the Federation for education and talent identification.