Bhubaneswar: As many as 6,848 footballs were distributed to 1260 schools of 17 districts of Odisha under FIFA’s Football for Schools (F4S) programme.
The ambitious initiative, being carried out by Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education in collaboration with All India Football Federation (AIFF) and FIFA, has been launched across the country to broaden the accessibility of football for students, regardless of gender, within the school setting.
The footballs were distributed on February 9 from Nodal district NVS in the presence of local dignitaries from various fields.
It was on October 30, 2022 that an MoU was signed between Union Ministry of Education, AIFF and FIFA for the F4S programme.
Union Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the distribution of balls on December 2, 2023 from JNV Cuttack. Thereafter, footballs were distributed in Angul, Dhenkanal and Deogarh districts of Odisha, as well as other states.
The target is to distribute 11 lakh FIFA footballs throughout India in a phased manner, with over 1.5 lakh schools set to benefit from the F4S programme.
To enhance capacity building, the School Education & Literacy department recently conducted a master training programme at Sambalpur, Pune and Bengaluru. Around 300 physical education teachers/trainees from states/UTs, KVS, NVS and AIFF across the country participated with an aim to learn from the best.
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