Students of Beijing Academy, a middle school, practice martial arts during PE class in December. -- China Daily/ANN
BEIJING: As awareness about children’s health increases, Beijing is pioneering a new system of teaching and testing physical education as it strives to improve students’ fitness levels.
This fall semester, seventh grade students will become the first group of students in the capital to take part in the adjusted system for middle school students.
In December, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission announced changes to physical education, which will eventually be applied during all nine years of compulsory school education.
Education authorities will add more progress assessments for PE courses to encourage children to start physical exercise at an earlier age and do it on a regular basis, Li Yi, a spokesman for the commission, said at a news conference to announce the changes.
“There will be more choices for students during their final tests,” he said.
“After the adjustments, it will be easier for students to get higher or even full scores during their PE tests.”
According to the new assessment rules, junior middle students will be able to choose four sports for their PE exams from a list of 22 sports including running, jumprope, standing long jump, table tennis, badminton, swimming and gymnastics. Fourteen new sports were added to the list.
“The goal is to bring physical education into the whole process of a student’s development when they enter primary school,” Li said.
All students will be encouraged to participate in physical education programmes and their interests and individual differences will be taken into consideration to ensure the programmes are fair. — China Daily/ANN
