By Almaamon Alshingiti

In Saudi Arabia, sports means football. We love this sport a lot and cherish our local teams with great fervor. We also cheer for our national team and hope for its success in international competitions. Our kids just love football and enjoy playing it at any time. It’s the national sport and a pass-time for both players and spectators.
Such passion is great for the sport of football, but not for other sports like basketball, handball, volleyball, athletics, swimming, martial arts, fencing, wrestling and so on. All other sports are ignored for the sake of football which always takes the lion’s share.
Our kids are being deprived of all other sports. They need to experience more sports, so they are exposed to them physically and mentally. It will prove to be a stronger base for sports development and make them more likely to continue being involved in sports as adults.
To do so, we need to start when kids are in kindergarten with some basic fun sports. As they grow up, more complex activities can be introduced. Our schools need to take the lead by enticing kids to play different types of sports that are in line with their physiological and psychological needs.
Currently, our schools focus only on competition. They have been using the same system for the last 30 years. In other countries, school sport, in general, is not at the forefront and it has been regressing with time. In America, Europe and Asia, we see less focus on physical education and scholastic sports. The UK has started to develop school sports along with the Scandinavian countries with large investments pumped into the educational system. We do have some advances in Singapore and Japan as well. All these countries have advanced systems that are based on clear, long term, well thought-out strategies.
To upgrade Saudi school sport system, the Minister of Education, Prince Faisal has launched the National School Sports Strategy that was developed by the Ministry of Education and Tatweer Public Education project. The huge task was assigned to a Spanish company from Barcelona that specializes in school sports strategies. This will be the first strategy that focuses on school sports in the Middle East. Several big consultants supported the Spansih consultant at the local and international levels.
DNA, a local research consultant was responsible for the local research in which over 1,000 interviews were conducted. A long analysis followed to understand issues such as physical education, facilities, after-school sports programs and other pertinent matters. Then a large external analysis was undertaken to 16 countries to understand how these countries’ sports systems operate and how their school sports systems work. Advisors from the US, Australia, Spain, Germany, France, Singapore, China and Finland supported on this task.
After the analysis, the local team comprising over 40 experts from the Ministry of Education, Tatweer, Ministry of Higher Education, the Presidency of Youth Welfare, the Olympic Committee and other ministries worked together to formulate the strategy. The next phase will start in a couple of months which is the strategy implementation, a process whereby programs will be launched on the ground for the next five years to develop school sports and raise the standard of health of our students, increase their participation and push them to practice a wider array of sports.

— Almaamon Alshingiti is Director of Strategic Development of School Sports