The International Day of Education celebrates the vital role that education plays in peace and human development. It was launched by the United Nations in 2018, which was also the same year that the Football for Schools programme saw the light of day at the eighth FIFA Council meeting in Rwanda. A Memorandum of Understanding was subsequently signed by FIFA and UNESCO so as to roll out the programme all over the globe. Six years down the line, 105 countries have joined the initiative.
In addition to this impressive number of signed-up nations, tens of millions of children have been positively affected by F4S. And it is these children that the programme aims to support and nurture, by incorporating football-related activities into the education system, with an overriding goal of making the sport more accessible to young people. “The objective is to create a link between education and football by ensuring that children’s introduction to kicking a ball around is as fun as possible, and by teaching them essential life skills,” explained Football for Schools Director Fatimata Sidibe.
She added, stressing the importance of 24 January to her and to the entire world: “This day places the focus firmly on education and raises awareness among stakeholders to support transformative actions that help achieve inclusive, equal and high-quality education for all. Education and sport play such a key role in children’s well-being and in building sustainable and resilient societies, transforming lives and breaking the cycle of poverty that tends to trap so many youngsters.”
The F4S Director is well-versed in this topic, having travelled the globe with her team over the past three years to meet these children, as well as the teachers and trainers expected to become true ambassadors of the programme, helping them to implement it everywhere, especially in some of the most remote regions of the world.
“Football is not only a universal sport, but it also has an extraordinary ability to unify and contribute to social integration, as well as educating and liberating boys and girls,” she said. “FIFA harnesses this power to provide children from all over the world, from very different backgrounds, with the opportunity to play and learn.”
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