Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday called upon all, including guardians, teachers, public representatives and well-off section of society, to extend cooperation to children so that they feel more encouraged to engage in sports and games.
“You’ll have to encourage them more and more, and take steps so that schools get all sorts of cooperation in this regard,” she said.
The Prime Minister said this while distributing trophies, medals and prizes among the champions and runners-up teams of Bangabandhu Gold Cup and Bangamata Begum Fazilatun Nesa Mujib Gold Cup Primary School Football Tournaments-2016 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in the city in the afternoon.
Voicing her firm optimism that Bangladesh will advance further in games and sports, Hasina assured that her government would do everything for its development.
“We want Bangladesh to progress further in games and sports where the boys and girls equally perform … we’ll take measures to create more scopes in the field,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina also expressed her firm optimism that today's young players will be able to show their best performance and excellence for the country in the international sporting arena in the future.
“Sports give us the opportunity for flourishing the talents of our children, create a competitive mindset alongside helping the children have a sound health,” she added.
About the Bangabandhu Gold Cup and Bangamata Begum Fazilatun Nesa Mujib Gold Cup Primary School Football Tournaments-2016, Hasina said some 21,83,752 students representing some 64,196 schools took part in these two tournaments.
“We want to ensure the massive involvement of our children in games and sports alongside nurture of cultural activities. On behalf of the government, we’ve also ensured necessary sporting equipment in every school so that our children give more attention to sports.”
She said her government has built various infrastructures from village to town level while mini-stadiums are being constructed at the upazila level.
Besides, opportunities are being created for improved training on sports alongside developing necessary infrastructures for the purpose.
She also noted with satisfaction that female players are making their mark of successes and excellence in all sporting disciplines and hoped that they will be able to continue such good trend in the future.
The Prime Minister congratulated both the champions and runners-up teams for their eye-catching performance and hoped that the tournaments would help develop quality of leadership, competition and mentality of teamwork as well as unity and discipline among the students.
Primary and Mass Education Minister Advocate Mostafizur Rahman spoke at the function, while Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the ministry Motahar Hossain and ministry secretary Asifuzzaman were present on the dais.
State Minister for Youth and Sports Biren Shikdar, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports Arif Khan Joy, Bangladesh Football Federation President Kazi Salahuddin were also present on the occasion.unb
