The Prime Minister’s wife Dr. Lydia Abela together with the Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation Clifton Grima launched a National Sports Day at the Marsa Sports Complex, an initiative of a day of sports activities in which hundreds of students from various schools around Malta and Gozo took part.
Dr. Lydia Abela claimed that sport celebrates many beautiful values; from inclusion to respect, from discipline to love. She claimed that all the participating children from schools around the country were part of all this with the support of the educators. She explained how physical activity is as important a part as any other aspect in the children’s educational journey. She also thanked those who participated in this initiative in which the protagonists were the children and who made a success of it. Apart from a day of sporting activity, this day also served to promote the importance of engaging in physical activity at school towards a healthier lifestyle.
“Through SportMalta we are taking various initiatives to see that we encourage our children from a young age to participate in sport and physical activity throughout the year”, said the Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation, Clifton Grima. “We want society to be aware of the importance of physical activity and to participate more actively in sports and physical activities”, said Minister Grima.
Mark Cutajar, Chief Executive of SportMalta stressed that the national sports day should be the day on which one does sport and physical activity the most. It was for this reason that a day during the week was chosen to be dedicated to sport and in fact a rest day was not chosen at the weekend, so that the goal of people moving would be achieved. SportMalta has several initiatives linked to the promotion of sport and physical activity, including the #BeActive campaign and the European Sports week.
The Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation is investing in the open spaces of schools with an ongoing project of rehabilitation of sports grounds, with the aim of improving the sports infrastructure in state schools both for recreational purposes and to improve the level of sports education. Among the various sports there were also activities such as Zumba, 3-legged race, potato race, t-shirt race and 2 obstacle races.
