TARGET AUDIENCES
- Teachers and students from secondary schools and Universities, teachers and children from kindergartens;
- Coaches, athletes and representatives of sports federations;
- Parents and communities
ACTIVITIES
- Training for educators and coaches, volunteers;
- Development of the curriculum;
- Conducting sports, education and public events (conferences, round tables, sports competitions, public campaigns, questionnaires, etc);
- Development education, information and communication materials;
HIGHLIGHTS
- Strengthen organizational and technical capacities of educational institutions, local governmental and non-governmental organizations, sports federations;
- Strengthen teaching and educational knowledge and skills of the educators and coaches through integration of Olympic education into the educational system and training;
- Strengthen advocacy skills of local sports clubs and associations, NGOs and stakeholders.
Summary
The programme was launched in June 2008. It aims to disseminate the principles and concepts of the Olympic Charter among educators and students of primary and secondary schools, and Universities, athletes, coaches and managers of sports federations in Tajikistan. It has comprised five sections:
- Developing the curriculum and creating accompanying material, and creating documentation centres
- Strengthening organizational and technical capacities the capacities of partner institutions;
- Training educators and coaches;
- Organizing and conducting sports events;
- Monitoring and evaluation of the inputs and outputs.
Eventually, the programme should be implanted in all the schools, kindergartens, Universities and sports federations in the country.
Objectives
The general objective of the programme is to give the means to Tajikistan's 2,902 schools and 53 sports federations to disseminate and teach the principles and concepts of the Olympic Charter.
More specifically, the programme aims to:
- Train educators and sports specialists as trainers/evaluators within the National Olympic Academy and among its partners;
- Through trained trainers, disseminate teaching about Olympism among educators and students of schools and Universities, teachers and children of kindergartens, coaches and athletes of sports clubs and federations;
- Strengthen the organizational and technical capacities of local partners to contribute to the implementation of the programme;
- Develop the curriculum, create educational material and document centres bringing together technical and educational resources.
Approach
An initial pilot phase was launched in June 2008. It has initially targeted 210 schools and 25 sports federations in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan and 4 pilot districts (Vahdat, Rudakie, Nurabad and Rasht).
As far as content is concerned, the programme based on themes and values such as the Olympic spirit, fair play, friendship, solidarity, peace, respect of human rights, responsible exercise of individual freedom, conflict resolution techniques, etc. It comprises five sections:
1. Curriculum development
Reference material is made available to Education Departments, sports federations and secondary schools in the various regions of the country.
2. Strengthening the capacities of national, regional and local institutions, sports federations and other partner organisations
Links are strengthened with the main partners of the programme. They receive special training, and technical resources are made available to them.
3. Workshops for the Ministry of Education, Sports Committee, NOC and NOA
Training sessions and workshops are organised for 15 trainers/evaluators, as well as for 75 supervisors recruited by the regional Education Departments, sports federations, youth organisations, community leaders, etc.
These educators and supervisors then organise training sessions for the school directors and deputy directors in their region, which, in turn, train their teachers.
4. Monitoring and evaluation
These trainers/evaluators permanently follow the development of the programme and evaluate its results on the basis of criteria established by the project management. Evaluation is undertaken after each workshop and training session. The educators/evaluators also visit the schools and sports clubs to check how the school programmes have been adapted with a view to integrating the Olympic education elements. They also speak to the students and athletes to determine their knowledge and the links between the partners, as well as to the community to ascertain its understanding of the Olympic principles.
5. Creation of documentation centres
Documentation centres bringing together technical and educational resources are developed. The educators can thus have access to educational material and general information enabling them to improve their teaching and increase their knowledge.
Results
The results achieved at the end of the first phase of the programme (May 2009) have been both qualitative and quantitative:
- The organizational and technical capacities of the NOC, the National Olympic Academy, the governmental bodies concerned, the sports federations, local NGOs, as well as the links between the partners and communities have been strengthened.
- 15 trainers/evaluators from NOC, NOA, Ministry of Education and Sports Committee have been trained;
- 85 city/district education departments’ supervisors, school directors and deputy directors, teachers and sports specialists, methodists of kindergartens have been trained trough a series of 3 training in each city/district (total 15 training);
- The concepts of the programme on Olympism have been disseminated through 58 training to more than 2850 teachers from:
- the Physical Culture University,
- 218 primary and secondary schools,
- 8 sports schools,
- 24 kindergartens and
- 21 sports federations;
- 2 military units. - More than 120,000 students of a Physical Culture University and schools have received teaching on Olympism, its main values, principles and ideas
- The following educational resources and communications tools have been developed:
- Olympic education programme curriculum,
- Olympic education manual (a textbook for schools) - 1,000 copies
- Advocacy for the Olympic Movement (a manual) - 1,000 copies in Tajik and 250 in Russian;
- Facts for the Benefits of Sports and Physical Culture - 500 copies (a manual)
- History of Five Olympic Rings (a textbook for - 500 copies Kindergartens)
- 3 Bulletins “The Olympic News.” - per 300 copies
- A set of 8 posters on Olympic Movement - 150 sets in Tajik and 30 sets in Russian
- Two sets of banners at size 2,5 m x 3,5 m (10) and 1,5 m x 2 m (20) - The following events with the emphasises on the Olympic Education programme have been held:
- 156 conferences with the demonstration of the Olympic Solidarity Values video spots, participation of the Tajikistan Olympic Team in Beijing video spot, the presentations on different topics;
- 43 Small Olympic Games;
- 34 Open Physical Culture Classes;
- 120 Questionnaire Games between Schools
- More than 30 sports competitions on football, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, chess, etc.
- Mass public campaigns, as the Olympic Day (23 June), the National Running Day (23 April), the National Army Day, etc. - Through advocacy efforts the following results have been achieved:
- 9 pieces of land have been provided by the local authorities for constructing sports facilities – 4 in Rasht, 2 in Rudakie, 3 in Dushanbe.
- 2 pieces of land initially provided for constructing sports facilities have been gained back from unauthorized capture by the local population in Rasht. - Through increasing public awareness and work with mass media:
- 12 articles on the Olympic issues and conducted events have been published in the National newspapers, “Sports”, “Asia Plus” and “Tajikistan Youth”.
- Information on conducted events have been disseminated through web sites, such as: “Khovar”, “Asia Plus” and “Ozodi” at regular basis.
- 18 articles on the Olympic issues and conducted events have been published in the local newspapers;
- Two local NGOs in Dushanbe have published information on the Olympic Movement in their newspapers: “Nasli Navras” (3 issues per 500 copies) and “The Youth House” (2 issues per 350 copies).
- 180 schools and 20 sports federations have created wall boards on the Olympic Movement in their facilities.
- 35 schools have started sports groups (sections) at their schools;
- The results of the data collection from schools and sports clubs in April-May 2009 showed that number of school children going in for sports increased 2,7 times (baseline May 2008).
Practical advice
- Shortage of education, information and communication (EIC) materials on the Olympic Movement.
- During the present project implementation a number of EIC materials (guidebooks, posters, leaflets, and banners) have been developed in Tajik (native) and Russian languages, which have been well acknowledged by all project participants. However, the budget was very limited to satisfy the required demands. The NOA will continue to looking for the donors in order to print developed materials for all Universities, schools and kindergartens. - Shortage of sports facilities and equipment throughout the whole country.
- During the project implementation much effort have been done for increasing the knowledge and skills of the project target groups (schools, kindergartens and sports clubs’ administration, teachers and coaches, representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations) in fundraising. However, a majority of the project participants still wait for the support or donation rather to seek for it. Thus, more efforts are needed to change the mentality and behaviour of the above-mentioned target groups through regular training and supportive monitoring. - Lack of basic knowledge of teaches in kindergartens and primary schools in conducting physical culture classes or sports events.
- It is very essential to intensify training with this target group, and to produce video-spots with classes and sports events followed with the explanations of basic rules. - Poor implementation of the plans of work by teachers in schools and kindergartens, as well as poor supportive monitoring by administration.
- The main reason is poor motivation of both: the administration and teachers (the average salary of teachers is $20-30 per months; out-classes and out-schools events conduct are not paid). It is very hard to wait for the increase of salary (motivation) in the nearest 5-7 years, due to the poor state budget. Therefore, mush efforts are needed to pursue the schools and kindergartens’ administration and teachers for increasing their awareness about the importance of healthy life style formation among the new generation. - Lack of experienced and qualified specialists.
- The NOA will sign the Agreements with all 5 Regional Institutions for Teachers Qualification Refreshment in order to conduct workshops and training, including methodology of training and topics of the Olympic Education and Movement at regular basis (to be included in the Institutes’ plans of work. - Poor involvement of International and local NGOs in sports activities.
- It is very important to actively involve International and local NGOs in the Olympic Movement activities in order to increase their awareness about the values and ideas of Olympism.
PROJECT INFORMATION
Country:
Tajikistan
Organisation:
National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Tajikistan
Contact:
Mr. Ibod Sharifi, Project Manager, Vice-President of the Tadjikistan Olympic Academy
Address:
PO Box 2
20/1 – 7 Behzod Street
Dushanbe, Republic of Tajikistan 734013
Phone:
+ 992 372 21 46 91 / +992 93 505 0381 (cell phone Mr. Sharifi)
Fax:
+ 992 372 21 46 91
Email:
immun_ibod@tojikiston.com (Mr. Sharifi)
Website:
www.olympic.tj