Julia Longville is a Principal Lecturer in the Cardiff School of Sport at Cardiff Metropolitan University (UWIC). She is an Estyn independent inspector and education consultant and works regularly with colleagues throughout Wales to develop Physical Education and School Sport.
In the face of a new publication from UNESCO on the importance of PE and physical activity for young people, the Board member gives her thoughts on what his means for Wales.
It is a sobering read and absolutely reinforces everything we have been saying at over the last few years. We have argued that if we don’t take urgent action in Wales to get our children more active today the consequences tomorrow for their health, quality of life and future well-being will be deeply damaging.
Children are spending less time being physically activity and this is having dire consequences on their health, life expectancy, and ability to perform in the classroom, in society and at work. These are the stark findings of UNESCO in their report Quality Physical Education Guidelines for Policy Makers.
In this report UNESCO strongly recommends that governments change this ekspresi dominan as a matter of urgency to try to reverse the lack of physical activity in children that the World Health Organisation has described as a ‘pandemic’ which contributes to the death of 3.2 million people every year.
The news in Wales is not as bad as that painted in many parts of the World by the UNESCO report.
In fact, in Wales the number of children participating in sport more than three times a week has risen in the last 5 years from 27% to 40% for young people and 29% to 39% for adults. But that still leaves 60% of the population that is not active enough to ensure their own future health and wellbeing.
I’ve always been passionate about the need for high quality PE in schools, because not only is it about health but it is also about developing the confidence of our young people. Whilst the pace of change has been slower than we at would have liked there are real opportunities that we can and must grasp now if we are to avoid the doomsday scenario highlighted in the UNESCO report.
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova points out the very high stakes game of roulette we are playing with the future wellbeing of our children. Some of the key elements of the report are:
1. Investment in PE is far outweighed by high dividends in health savings and the educational objectives it produces.
2. Participation in quality PE instills a positive attitude to activity, decreases the chances of young people engaging in inappropriate behaviour and has a significant positive impact on academic performance, whilst at the same time helping develop wider social inclusion.
These findings echo strongly the work of Baroness Tanni-Grey Thompson and the recommendations of the Ministerial Task and Finish Group she led in 2013.
We have known what has been crystalised in this UNESCO report for some time. Now is the time when we must take action in Wales. The Donaldson review of the school curriculum in Wales that was recently delivered to Education Minister Huw Lewis is a review that we believe has the potential to take account of the weight of evidence that now exists by putting physical literacy at the center of the school curriculum in the coming years to ensure the ‘pandemic’ of ill health brought about by a lack of activity has as little effect as we can manage in Wales.
Education is the one place where children of all backgrounds and circumstances have an equal opportunity to develop their physical skills for the future. It is only through the development of these skills and access to high quality teaching and learning at an early age will we truly start to move towards the healthy, confident and sustainable society we want for our future generations.
The good news is, we are ahead of the game in Wales – but reading this excellent UNESCO report has once again reinforced the urgent need to tackle the root cause of so much of our ill health in Wales. The message I have taken from this report is the road to a healthier more sustainable Wales is one you walk, jog, run and cycle down.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar