TT to be taught in school syllabus

Muscat: The Ministry of Education (MoE) and Oman Table Tennis Association (OTTA) signed a memorandum of Understanding for including table tennis in the school syllabus. The signing ceremony took place on Wednesday in presence of Dr Abdullah bin Khamis Ambusaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and OTTA Chairman Abdullah Mohammed Bamakhalif.

The agreement was signed by Dr Yahya Khamis al Harthi, GM of General Directorate of Curriculum Development, who represented MoE side while Abdullah BamaKhalif signed on behalf of OTTA.

The OTTA chief announced the launch of ‘Future Champions’ project which aims to provide 282 schools with all the necessary equipment including TT tables, balls and rackets besides delivering workshops for the teachers of sports curriculum. The project will focus on educating generations about the table tennis and boosting the game in the schools.

The MOU is targeted to form a team between both parties to specify the activities, basic skills of table tennis which to be distributed to the syllabus of 1st grade in elementary until 10th grade school. Also, the team will study implementation of internal activities, festivals and other events related to table tennis. Moreover, the both parties should work on scientific research that linked to execution of table tennis practical skills in the educational curriculum.

Abdullah BamaKhalif said the agreement with MoE is a good step to promote the knowledge of table tennis to the students. “Imparting the skills of table tennis to the students will boost the sport in the schools and community. We hope that table tennis will be the one of the favorite sports and to be played among the students during the classes of sports syllabus. Our target from the future champions project is to discover potential faces that add value in the future national teams. And then accomplish top positions in the future participations,” he ended.

On the other hand, Dr Yahya Khamis al Harthy, affirmed that MoE aims to achieve the comprehensive development of the student’s personality and contribute to the Omani sports at all levels including competitiveness.

The project with OTTA aims to enhance students attitude towards physical activity in various sports activities including table tennis. It will also diversify curriculum programmes and activities to be in line with the characteristics of the students’ age. Table tennis is one of the popular sports that can contribute to increase the physical activity for our students by practicing at home or school. Then, this will assist in reflecting it positively on raising the level of health and their physical and mental fitness.” he concluded.