Call for greater female participation in USSSA capacity building programmes

By Emmanuel Sekago

There is a growing call for women and girls to take a more active role in capacity-building programmes organised by the Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) following a low turnout of female participants in various sports training courses conducted this year.

According to statistics seen by Wallnetnews Digital, female participation remained significantly lower than that of their male counterparts across most of the 12 sports disciplines offered during the USSSA Capacity Building Training programmes held at Seroma Christian High School-Mukono, Lira Town College, and Stahiza-Ndejje Campus.

The trainings were conducted alongside major USSSA competitions, including the National Ball Games I and the USSSA National Boys Football Championship, with the aim of equipping teachers, students, and sports officials with technical skills in coaching, officiating, safeguarding, media, and sports administration.

The Safeguarding Course attracted the highest attendance, registering a total of 2,830 participants. The category comprised 5 female teachers and 82 male teachers, while student participation stood at 776 females and 1,835 males. Other participants included 2 females and 130 males.

Media training emerged as the second most attended course with a total of 188 participants, including 100 females and 88 males.

Football refereeing attracted 184 participants, while football coaching registered 90 trainees. Basketball refereeing recorded 106 participants and coaching 73. Badminton umpiring attracted 61 participants and coaching 44. Table Tennis umpiring registered 51 participants, while coaching attracted 44.

Other disciplines included Rugby refereeing with 52 participants, Netball umpiring with 66, Volleyball refereeing with 61, Handball coaching with 30, Hockey umpiring with 33, and Lawn Tennis refereeing with 26 participants.

Overall statistics showed a significant gender gap. A total of 95 male teachers participated compared to only 8 female teachers. Student participation stood at 2,356 males against 1,342 females, while the “others” category registered 133 males and only 5 females.

In total, USSSA trained 3,939 participants across all disciplines.

Speaking to Wallnetnews Digital, USSSA Head of Capacity Building, Emeritus Patrick Okanya, applauded school head teachers and games teachers for embracing the association’s training programmes.

“We are grateful to head teachers for registering students and teachers for the various capacity-building courses. The response has continued to improve every year, and many of those trained are now actively officiating USSSA-sanctioned competitions at district, zonal and national levels,” Okanya said.

He noted that the programmes have played a significant role in developing technical personnel required to support the growing number of school sports competitions across the country.

However, Okanya expressed concern over the low enrollment of women and girls in the trainings.

“We need more female teachers to take advantage of these opportunities whenever registration opens. Schools should also deliberately encourage and register more girls for these courses. The numbers from the recent training show that female participation is still far below where it should be,” he said.

He emphasized that capacity-building programmes provide valuable opportunities for participants to acquire skills in officiating, coaching, sports administration, safeguarding, and media, which can open pathways for leadership and career development within sports.

Okanya urged schools, district sports associations, and education stakeholders to promote gender inclusion in sports training programmes to ensure that women and girls are equally represented in the technical and leadership structures of school sports.

As USSSA continues to expand its capacity-building initiatives, stakeholders believe that increasing female participation will not only strengthen sports administration but also contribute to creating more role models and opportunities for young girls within Uganda’s sporting ecosystem.