After competing at the zone, inter zone, district and at the division, schools will now battle it out at the Malawi Youth Games national finals from Thursday 31 August, 2023 to Sunday 3 September 2023 at the Civo stadium in Lilongwe.
Over 1000 learners from all the education division across the country will compete at this year’s finals in football, netball, volleyball, basketball, athletics and Para-athletics and for the first time since the inception of the game’s girls’ football and chess will also be played.
This year’s competition started in April, 2023 and 12,171 (2671 secondary, 9500 primary) schools registered for the competition compared to 11,250 which registered for the second edition, while 1,021,540 (998, 900 primary and 22,640 secondary) learners took part in the games compared to 993,600 which took part in the second edition.
The Malawi Youth Games were introduced in 2021 by MNCS as a direct response to the huge outcry from the sports fraternity and general public which believes that the poor performance of our national teams and athletes at international competitions is as a result of the absence of school sport and the idleness at the grassroot level.
The Malawi Youth Games acts as a vehicle for identifying and nurturing talent across the country as all schools both private and public from primary and secondary schools take part.
The games are competed by Seven education divisions which include South West Education Division (SWED) which consist of Nsanje, Chikwawa, Blantyre urban, Blantyre rural, Mwanza, and Neno. Shire Highlands Education Division (SHED) which consists of Phalombe, Chiradzuro, Thyolo, and Mulanje.
South East Education Division (SEED) which consist of Zomba, Mangochi, Machinga and Balaka, North West Education Division (NWED) which consist of Karonga, Chitipa and Rumphi, North East Education Division (NEED) which consist of Mzuzu, Mzimba north, Mzimba south, Likoma, and Nkhatabay.
Central West Education Division (CWED) which consist of Lilongwe east, Lilongwe west, Lilongwe urban, Ntcheu, Dedza and Mchinji, Central East Education Division (CEED) which consist of Kasungu, Dowa, Ntchisi, Nkhotakota and Salima.
In the first edition NEED were the overall winners while in the second edition CWED were crowned as the overall winners.