Kenya will soon start grading players in schools based on their competencies in playing soccer to be awarded certificates that they can showcase while looking for jobs.
The Ministry of Education’s Programme Officer for Football for Schools, Eliud Wambua, said the grading will be done in schools where other values will be inculcated as students participate in soccer.
“So the issue is that you must be in school to play soccer because you must be able to communicate as you play,” he noted.
Speaking in Kakamega, Wambua welcomed Football for Schools (F4S) as part of many programmes the government has come up with to address the many challenges facing the increasing youth population in the country.
“This is part of a problem solver to the challenge that we face with the youth batch, where children are idle and use their energies on negative engagements. With F4S, you will not find children on the streets, but you will find them playing soccer. This is also part of our Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) pathway on talent alongside STEM and the social sciences,” he noted.
“It feels very great for FIFA to have chosen Kenya to be part of this programme. This is a saviour for the children of this nation. Let me, on behalf of the Ministry, make a commitment that we will do everything humanly possible to ensure this programme succeeds,” he added.
He therefore called for prudent governance and leadership in soccer, borrowing a leaf from the world football governing council FIFA to ensure schools are managed well and promising that the Ministry of Education will partner with FIFA and FKF to upgrade the available facilities to provide a better environment.
He urged Principals and Head teachers who are always reluctant to support sports to rise to the challenge of supporting the development of talent while understanding that without sports, the curriculum is incomplete.
Wambua noted that the F4S programme is under the Kenya Academy of Sports, where players will join the Academy for elite sports once they graduate and thereafter consider other exit strategies and placement in clubs.
FKF CEO Barry Otieno said the F4S programme is a journey that will change the lives of millions of Kenyan kids by giving them an opportunity to showcase their talents and an opportunity to monetize the art of football.
“We are happy that through this programme, we will not only get the basic equipment that we need for kids to play but also some good technical advice from FIFA and a provision for a platform that can further equip us with knowledge to handle kids. The great initiative would outlive most of us,” He noted.
According to FIFA F4S Director Fatima Sidibe, the Idea of the Football for Schools Programme was birthed in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2018 during the 8th Council of FIFA.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino and the Executive Committee Members of FIFA decided to give every child in the world the opportunity to play football and to learn life skills.
She said F4S was then launched in 2019 as a mass participation programme to harness Football and Education with the objective of promoting social change.
“The programme is an opportunity for boys and girls to have their first contact with football at school, learn to play, acquire life’s lessons, understand themselves, and interact and socialise with others,” she noted.
“It is also about knowing how to lose in fair play and how to win with humility; it’s about communicating well with others in respect and inclusion. It is about tolerance and banishing violence at every age,” she added.
By Moses Wekesa
