“Football in School” M.O.U. Signed

Ian Cal

The Football Federation of Belize and the Ministry of Sports signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Education this afternoon to roll out the “Football in School” programme.  It’s a FIFA programme that offers students new opportunities to get active through football.  The programme will be incorporated in the curriculum and rolled out over the next four years for Belizean students from age five to fifteen.

Ian Cal, Director, National Sports Council

“This program is a very important program which we at the sports council look at how we can expand that to other programs. We will be looking at this and studying it closely at how we can use it to develop young people in our country.”

Dian Maheia

Dian Maheia, C.E.O., Ministry of Education

“The past year has been challenging in so many ways and sports is such a big part of mental health and wellness and what we learnt in the past year is that as important as academics are we cannot underscore the important of mental health and wellness.  The core needs that we are looking at, the core subjects are English, math, Social Studies and Science. And the other two core areas we really want to focus on are art and physical education. They are that important.   I know that I am preaching to the choir when I say that playing football teaches you so much; you don’t just develop core strength; you develop stamina and strategy. So, from the perspective of the Ministry of Education we are willing to support this program and support the teaching of the theory as it is needed in schools; support for the PE teachers to get training to be coaches; supporting the administration so that they understand that this is an important program and in the Ministry proper we will look at identifying someone to work with you so that the program can go through the full life over the next four years.”