The Ministry of National Education and the Organizing Committee for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) have signed a partnership agreement in preparation for the Dakar 2026 YOG, the first Olympic event of this scale on the African continent. The ceremony took place yesterday, Friday November 29, 2024, at Eden Rock, in the presence of Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye and Moustapha Mamba Guirassy.
“The Agreement that we are signing, much more than an act of pure formality, bears the seal of a strategic partnership inspired by the Host Contract linking us to the International Olympic Committee, and which places Youth at the heart of the process of preparation and organization of this first Olympic event on African soil”, immediately recalled Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye.
According to the president of the YOG Organizing Committee, “it is in fact a continuation of that concluded in 2020 between the Ministry of National Education and the Olympic and Sports Movement, represented by the CNOSS, and which served as a basis so far for the implementation of important sports activities within the school space.
However, he specifies, “our partnership today goes further. First, it materializes one of the decisions of Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko taken at the end of the Interministerial Council on the preparation of the YOG Dakar 2026 held on October 15, 2026, which strongly instructed the stakeholders for a broad involvement of the school community in the preparation and organization of the games. Then, it is based on shared values, converging ambitions and a strong desire to join forces to ensure adequate involvement of Senegalese youth, through the School, in the preparation and delivery of the Youth Olympic Games. Dakar 2026 »
And added: “there is nothing more appropriate than the school setting to guarantee the involvement of as many of our youth as possible in the organization of the YOG 2026 and leave them with a memory that will remain forever in print. in their consciousness. This is why the OCOG has chosen to have you as a partner of choice in the implementation of three major dimensions of the preparation of the Games, namely: The implementation of the Olympic, Civic and Sports Brevet, an innovative initiative whose “The aim is to imprint throughout the country, through all 11,000 schools, the Olympic ideal and the values of civics and Olympism.”
According to Diagna Ndiaye, “the tour of the Olympic flame which will be relayed in all the academies of our country and will allow students, teachers but also parents to commune with this strong symbol of the games. The competition to create the mascot for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, which will be officially launched in the coming weeks, and which will be an important moment of involvement of the School and use of the imagination of our young talents to give birth to a symbol that will mark the history of games and our continent.” “Our nation will be the mirror of the diversity and cultural richness of the entire African continent. Through these Games, our nation will reflect the diversity and cultural richness of the entire African continent. To embody this unique spirit, we have the duty to put our youth at the forefront and give them a place of choice,” concluded the head of the Senegalese Olympism.
Moustapha Guirassy : « Our country faces a double challenge”
According to the Minister of National Education: “Our country must, therefore, meet the dual challenge of a successful and impeccable organization and positive participation through the achievement of high-level sporting performances. This ambition undoubtedly requires, from every Senegalese citizen and our strategic partners, unfailing commitment.”
Furthermore, recalls Moustapha Guirassy, “during the council of ministers of June 5, 2024, the President of the Republic asked the Government to take measures aimed at strengthening the practice of sport in all schools and universities in Senegal and relaunching the school and university sports competitions throughout the national territory.
In application of this directive, the Senegalese School Sports Federation, created by decree no. 2021-1594 of December 2, 2021, was established on June 21, 2024 by the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, in presence of the Ministers of Vocational Training and National Education. This federation was able to organize, from August 1 to 5, 2024 in Thies, the National School Sports Festival which brought together 2,356 students and supervisors around six (06) sporting disciplines and civic activities, a first in twenty years of absence . “This demonstrates once again the important place reserved for sport in the 2050 agenda, by the highest authorities of our country. Added to this are the forty measures taken by the Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, during the interministerial council of October 15, 2024, on the preparation of the Youth Olympic Games,” he underlines. “Education in citizenship and patriotism, which is one of our priorities, can be easily implemented through sports practice, because school sport aims to develop the abilities of learners and perfect their sporting skills according to the following dimensions : socialization through appropriation and respect for rules; the formation of attitudes; the construction of behavior; the inculcation of the values of peace, civic-mindedness and citizenship; inclusion and equitable development”. This is perfectly in line with the new vision of my department which consists of “evolving our education system towards an inclusive and efficient educational society to finally train, by 2035, a citizen well-backed by its endogenous base of African and spiritual values while being prepared for the challenges of sustainable development, science and technology, digital technology and artificial intelligence.”
