NEW DELHI, October 28 (Aalimi Nation) – The Ministries of Youth Affairs and Sports and of Education signed a memorandum of understanding with UNESCO on Wednesday to take clean sport values into classrooms across India. The agreement was exchanged at the Clean Sport Conclave organised by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) India in the capital.
The initiative is built around the "Sports Values in Every Classroom Toolkit", which aims to build respect, integrity and fairness among schoolchildren through education, sport and everyday classroom activity. The toolkit includes video modules that will be available in 13 Indian languages so that it can reach students nationwide.
The effort is aligned with the Khelo Bharat Niti 2025, the national sports policy, which seeks to bring sport and education closer together. No rollout schedule for schools was announced.
Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Education Minister Pralhad Joshi signed the agreement with Tim Curtis, Director of UNESCO's Regional Office for South Asia. Also present were the Secretaries of the School Education and Sports departments, the Director General of NADA, international delegates who had attended UNESCO anti-doping meetings a day earlier, and javelin thrower Sachin Yadav.
"Sporting excellence and sporting integrity must go hand in hand," Mandaviya said. He said talent, discipline and hard work matter, but that integrity, fairness and credibility are equally important. He described the partnership with the Education Ministry as consistent with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of linking sport and education.
Mandaviya called doping a serious concern that needs continuing education, prevention, testing and enforcement. He said NADA India conducted more than 7,000 tests in 2025-26 and held over 350 awareness sessions that reached about 27,000 participants. He added that facilities for testing supplements at the National Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar and NIPER Hyderabad help prevent inadvertent doping.
The minister also noted that the National Anti-Doping Act came into force this year and said the government is preparing provisions to criminalise doping-related activities for placing before Parliament. No date for that has been given.
Joshi called the agreement "an important step towards strengthening the connection between education and sports." He said academically strong students often do not take part in sport, and stressed the need for better grassroots opportunities and pathways for young athletes. He said sports values should become "an integral part of every child's educational experience" and that the toolkit's message should reach society beyond classrooms.
Curtis described the agreement as a new chapter in UNESCO's partnership with India, with the potential to reach millions of young people and to serve as a model for other countries. "Every child in the classroom can learn what it means to play by the rules," he said.
He said the toolkit offers ideas and practical resources. The real test, he said, is whether children play fairly even when nobody is watching.
The ministries have not said when the toolkit will be introduced in schools or how its use will be monitored. Curtis said teachers are expected to bring the values to life in the classroom. The doping-related criminal provisions mentioned by Mandaviya are yet to be placed before Parliament.
