China's cabinet held a video-teleconference on Friday in Beijing
to urge all schools to implement a guideline aimed at improving
students' health.
Zhou Ji, minister of Education, called on all schools to take
immediate measures to strengthen physical education and ensure
students have one hour of sports every day.
"High schools and primary schools should encourage students to
spend more time on physical exercise," Zhou said.
"Schools will not be allowed to have students attend extra
lessons at weekends or holidays in future."
The Guideline on Strengthening Adolescent Physical Education
and Improving Adolescent Physique, released by the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on
Thursday, aims at ensuring the good health of Chinese
teenagers.
According to the guideline, all primary and high schools should
guarantee physical education lessons "with quality and
quantity".
Grade one and two primary school students should have four
physical education lessons a week; grade three to six primary
school students and junior high school students three a week; and
senior high school students two a week.
Schools should allow students who do not have PE lessons, to
have one hour's collective physical exercise after class every
day.
Colleges and universities should ensure every student takes
extra-curricular physical exercise at least three times every
week.
The guideline also urges schools to devise timetables to allow
enough sleep time for students: 10 hours for primary school
students, 9 hours for junior high school students and 8 for senior
high school students.
The guideline points out that schools have a tendency to attach
more importance to students' intellectual development rather than
their physical development.
As a result, students have excessive homework and inadequate
time for rest and physical exercise.
It says a recent survey indicates teenagers' average physical
index, such as endurance, strength and speed, have been declining
continuously.
The number of teenagers with poor eyesight remains high. The
number of overweight urban teenagers keeps increasing while their
counterparts in some rural areas are suffering from
malnutrition.
"These problems, if not addressed properly, will seriously
affect the growth of teenagers and even the nation's future," the
guideline says.
The guideline sets a goal of substantially improving the
physique of teenagers in five years, with malnutrition, obesity and
nearsightedness considerably reduced.
(China Daily May 26, 2007)
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