More Sports for Schools in China

May 13, 2016 Blog 0

For years, Chinese students have long complained that they could not enjoy school work due to the constant pressure of schools in academic work without much time for sports. It is often thought of by parents of one-child generations that academic success is more important than giving children time for leisure and fun as it would affect their family’s future.

However, the Chinese government is now going to launch a new guideline that promotes sports for campuses throughout the country. The guideline was released on Friday by the State Council and requires schools to provide enough time for their students to engage in sports. The guideline also adds clauses on more physical education classes and include sports exams in their evaluations.

The guideline hopes to asssist the efforts of the government in achieving the sports development five-year plan that would help the growth of the Chinese sports industry. The industry is expected to earn more than 3 trillion yuan by 2020 as noted in the five-year plan.

According to Yang Guang of the School of Physical Education of the Northeast Normal University, he said “A large portion of China’s rapidly aging population is incapacitated. To reverse the trend, we need more people to work out to their fullest when they are young.”

On Monday, the officials from the Ministry of Education asked local governments to evaluate their officials based on the health of each student in their areas and see if it has improved.

The new guideline isn’t the first time the government paid close attention to campus sports because in 2012, a circular was released and indicated that school administrators will be held responsible if their students’ physical condition deteriorates for three successive years. However, this specific circular was not fully applied because at least 38.6% of data on primary schools throughout the country revealed that the records were tampered to show that schools followed the directive. Experts stress that campus sports success would need strict and active implementation.

According to a 2014 study, 23% of Chinese boys and 14% Chinese girls under the age of 20 are currently overweight or obese. These trends also show that Chinese children are now having problems with eyesight, cardio-respiratory health and stamina issues and it is growing at an alarming rate.

Source : chinachristiandaily