Agreement, which serves as a main guiding document for school football development in Ukraine, includes a separate paragraph on implementation of OFFS project and Memorandum with the Ministry of Internal Affairs is completely dedicated to project implementation.
Briefing on this event was attended by Management of the Federation represented by Executive Officer Maxym Bondarev, Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Youth and Sports Borys Zhebrovskyi, Executive Officer of National Olympic Committee Natalia Kovalenko, Chief of Criminal Militia Department for Children of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Oleksii Lazarenko and OFFS National Coordinator Yevgeniy. Leading physical education teachers and coaches of youth football clubs of Kyiv participated in the event.
“Football lives in the hearts of almost all Ukrainians, – mentioned in his speech Zhebrovskyi. – The history of our cooperation with Football Federation of Ukraine includes not only new playgrounds and footballs, but first of all thousands of children who joined football classes. The new Agreement on cooperation between Football Federation of Ukraine with the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine on school football development in comprehensive educational institutions includes new aspects. According to new curriculum, each school, depending on materials and equipment available, may use three physical education classes for training in one selected sport. I am sure that in rural schools they will choose football and this will bring development of this game to a new level. I think that in the nearest future we will have to search football reserves not in CYSS (Children´s and Youth Sports Schools), but in classrooms. And another thing: starting from the next year we are also planning to hold girls’ school football tournaments”.
“It was due to cooperation between Football Federation and the Ministry of Education and Science that the third sports class per week was introduced in schools, – said Maxym Bondarev. – Football became an integral part of sports curriculum. Unfortunately, strong financial aid programs for schools supporting the first Agreement were wound-up in 2005. We must avoid previous mistakes, because we clearly understand that without centralized aid programs for providing footballs, constructing playgrounds with artificial turf in regions, school football development will slow down both in terms of amount of participants and quality of classes. Today the majority of Ukrainian pupils play football in poor conditions and teachers do not receive adequate wages for these classes, which leads to a loss of quality, reduced interest and worse attitude of children towards such classes.
Another important task is holding national school competitions among girls. It has to be a good national tournament, like School Football National Cup EURO-2012 held this year, which allowed pupils from all over Ukraine to feel involved in a grand event.
Of course, it is necessary to restore and support the second largest school tournament among rural pupils “Giving Happiness to Children!” organized by “Kolos” Community. At one time this specific social event, particularly aimed at rural youth, was acknowledged by UEFA as the second among the best grassroots projects in Europe. Unfortunately, its funding was cut down each year and in 2012 this competition was not held at all.
Massive regional school tournaments, such as Kharkiv “Tournament of Thousand Teams”, Dnipropetrovsk “School Euro”, Kyiv and Donetsk school football leagues, tournament among teams from orphanages and boarding schools “You Are Not Alone!” also need support.
According to Maxym Bondarev, strategic objective of cooperation between Football Federation of Ukraine and Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine should be the use of school football as one of the most effective tools in raising children during their development in schools from the 1st to 11th grade.
“Federation Specialists created a special kit for football classes, which includes footballs, shirtfronts, training chips and workbooks. FFU will hand these kits over to each regional federation for encouraging local comprehensive education schools. At the same time it will closely monitor receipt of these kits by schools”, – said Maxym Bondarev.
Considering educational and social importance of football, Memorandum of cooperation between FFU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine will become another important factor in preventing juvenile crime and promoting healthy lifestyle among pupils. This agreement will be aimed at using Open Fun Football Schools Festivals, classes, competitions and football fests as educational tool for promoting healthy lifestyle values, preventing and overcoming crime and conflicts among children, promoting friendship and understanding among parents from different social strata, nationalities and sex.
“This year we have first started our cooperation with the Federation on implementation of Open Fun Football Schools project, – said Oleksii Lazarenko. – The main factor of juvenile delinquency is having nothing to do in the free time. For us it is important to involve in this project children who are at risk. Through cooperation with Football Federation we also want to raise a new generation of fans – cultured and law-abiding”.
At the end of the ceremony best coaches and school football experts received awards and gifts from FFU.
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