As the London Olympics concludes, prominent Australians are calling for inquiries into physical activity, the impact of a sedentary lifestyle, more funding for sport, and/or compulsory sport in schools.
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Sports
Minister, Andrew Barr, says that the territory is leading the nation in
physical education in schools, according to Canberra Times (August 7, 2012).
Barr says schools students in Canberra and the ACT
complete the greatest amount of organized sport and physical education of any
state or territory in Australia. New South Wales has compulsory sport in
school, but not to the extent that ACT schools do. ACT was also the first
jurisdiction to implement physical activity as part of the national school
curriculum, while other states were still in the planning phase. Barr said that
ACT exceeded national benchmarks mandating at least two hours of physical
activity each week for each student.
ACT kindergarten to Year 2 students already
undertook 30 minutes of activity a day aimed at developing gross motor skills,
such as running, catching a ball, throwing a ball, and jumping. Year 3 to Year
10 students in Canberra already undertook 150 minutes of physical activity (ranging
from moderate to vigorous) each week.
In 2007, the ACT government commenced a Get a Move On policy that raised the
importance of school sport, not aimed at producing future Olympians, but aimed
at improving academic ability through regular exercise. Currently the ACT’s Active Kids Challenge has 70 primary
schools participating in organized sport, involving nearly 20,000 school
children, for half-an-hour to one hour a day.
Around the nation, sport will not be included as a
mandatory activity when the new national school curriculum for health and physical
education is introduced in 2014. Instead, the decision to include physical
activity will be a state, not federal, decision. Each state education
department, and each private school system, will formulate their own policies
on compulsory or non-compulsory school sport.
Australia’s Olympic chief, John Coates, has suggested
that the federal government’s decision not to make sport compulsory at school
level could result in Australia lagging behind expectations at future Olympics.
Dr. Steve Georgakis, a lecturer in the Faculty of
Education at the University of Sydney, and author of Youth Sport in Australia, says a bad situation is set to become
worse in the national school curriculum. He says, even mandated sport in New
South Wales schools had been “completely residualised” and therefore not regarded
as a serious subject. He says from 2014, the situation will become worse.
A study on Australian children, Growing Up In Australia, reports that they
watch more than the recommended maximum of two hours a day of television. The
longitudinal study found that 46% of six-year-olds watch more than two hours of
television each weekday. On weekends the figure rises to 52%. One-third of
eight-year-olds watch three hours of daily TV on weekends.
Georgakis said Australia needed a system that
supported grassroots sport, and that it needs to be institutionalized and
valued. He promoted a mass sport model in which gifted and talented students
could be provided a pathway to sporting excellence.
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/sport-wont-be-made-mandatory-in-schools-20120806-23ql6.html#ixzz22obGUzVx
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