National Council of Sports (NCS) Ag. Secretary General Dr. Bernard Patrick Ogwel has challenged private investors in education sector to ensure playing grounds when starting schools as it is stipulated in the ministry of education and sports policy.
While launching this year’s Copa Coca-Cola secondary schools football tournament on Sunday at Wakiso, Ogwel also urged local government leaders to desist from giving away playing grounds to investors as land for development.
“There is a lot of progress in schools football as exhibited by Buddo SSS and ST Mary’s SSS, Kitende in the Wakiso qualifiers final. It is a long journey we have benefited from Coca-Cola sponsorship of this secondary schools competition. As government, we thank schools that invest in sports. As you are aware over 2000 students participate in this competition every year and that ensures progress of Ugandan football,” noted Ogwel. “Stadiums and playing grounds are still a challenge but it is among our priority as government,” he added. This year’s Copa Coca-Cola national finals will kick off on May 7 in Jinja and sponsors Coca-Cola have introduced a new recycling campaign that will see participating schools stand a chance to win a refurbished pitch for their school and bursaries for winning students. The campaign dubbed ‘Coca-Cola recycle and win’ is in line with Coca-Cola’s commitment to a world without waster campaign that aims to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle or can for everyone it sells globally by 2030. Apart from the campaign, about 2000 participating schools in four regions will each compete for a chance to get their school pitches refurbished by Coca-Cola by simply collecting the most quantity of bottles whilst schools will be paid cash for the kilograms of bottles collected. “Participating students and champion teachers will stand a chance to win bursaries and other exciting prizes respectively, according to Coca-Cola Country Manager Arthur Akankwasa. Buddo SSS are the defending champions after their 1-0 win over Blessed Sacrament-Kimanya last year. Buddo, who also beat St Mary’s SSS, Kitende on Sunday to win their first ever Wakiso district Copa qualifiers title, were eliminated at the quarter finals in the Copa Coca-Cola Africa Cup in Kenya.
