Online Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday put emphasis on holding inter school, college and university level sports tournaments regularly.

“We need to build environment for holding inter school, college and university level sports tournaments. We even need to arrange inter upazila and district sports tournaments,” she said.

The prime minister said this while inaugurating the final round of 52nd National Winter Sports Competition of school, madrasas and technical institutes. She joined the programme virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban.

The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Rajshahi and Bangladesh National School, Madrasha and Technical Institutions Sports Association jointly organised the national sports event at Muktijuddho Smriti Stadium in Rajshahi to be held from February 7 to 12.

Hasina said that the young people will be able to grow strong both physically and mentally if different tournaments for them are held round the year. This will also help flourishing their creatvity and instill in their minds love for the society and the country.

They will be able to bring honour and dignity for their families also, she said.

The prime minister asked the authorities concerned for making local games more attractive and put more importance on them.

She said that besides physical exercise sports help creating bonding for unity, atmosphere of friendship, competitive environment and psychological strength in a person.

“That means the spirit of sportsmanship developes. For that I think we have to give more attention to sports,” she said.

The prime minister said that her government has given extra attention on the sports arena of the country.

“For the boys and girls of primary school level the government has arranged football tournaments,” she said.

She also agreed to the plea of the education minister to introduce secondary school level tournaments for all kinds of sports.

In this connection, she said that the sports of the country have to be developed further.

She said that the government has plan to provide intensive training for the children so that they can do better in all sorts of sports in the competitive tournaments.

“Developing trainers is also urgently needed. We will set up BKSP in every eight division for that purpose and make the children more skilful in the sports ,” she said.

She said that the government is constructing a mini stadium in every upazila of the country for holding sports competitions round the year.

Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton and Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, among others, were present at Rajshahi end.

This sports competition was introduced by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1972. The competition could not be held in 1998 due to floods. It was not held also in 2020 and 2021 for Covid-19 pandemic.

The upazila level competition was held from January 15 to 21, while district level from January 23 to 27, sub-regional from January 29 to February 1, regional from February 3 to 5 and finally the national level will be from February 7 to 12.

The country’s largest sports competition started with some 700,000 participants at the Upazila level on January 11, 2024.

Today, the final round of the sports competition was inaugurated and a total of 824 students are participating under different sports events.

There are 13 different sports events in the final round of the competition.