Durban - Concerned that at least half of South African children are active for less than an hour a day, the Basic Education Department and the Physical Education Institute of South Africa have banded together to encourage physical education at schools.
No longer a stand-alone subject in the new Caps curriculum, Physical Education forms part of life orientation, from Grade R all the way to Grade 12.
Norman Mphake, founder of the institute, said he believed schools were the ideal setting for teaching children how to adopt and maintain active and healthy lifestyles through organised and assessed physical activity.
Visiting Durban at the weekend, for the launch of a Zulu-language personal training course at the Physical IQ college, Mphake said that the more a country developed, the more inactive its citizens became. But active citizens placed less of a burden on the health sector and were more productive, he said.
Earlier this year the department encouraged schools to celebrate Physical Education Month, and Physical Education Day on May 10.
The results of last year’s Discovery Vitality Healthy Active Kids’ Report Card found less than half of South African children who lived in cities took part in organised sport or recreational activities, and that most spent almost three hours a day watching television on weekdays.
More than two thirds of youngsters ate fast food at least three times a week, and only half ate enough fruit and vegetables.
Creating and distributing a school self-assessment kit to measure physical activity and nutrition was one way in which the department was trying to ensure the report card results improved.
Mphake emphasised that physical education was important, not just for children’s health, but because they learnt valuable skills through play.
In grades R to three, two hours a week had been allocated to physical education, according to the curriculum, since physical education was seen as critical to the development of pupils’ motor skills and perceptual development.
Pupils learnt skills such as co-ordination through activities like throwing and catching while running in different directions without bumping into each other. Jumping over or climbing under obstacles taught spatial orientation. Physical education was also a tool to promote physical fitness, and taught safety, and leadership to children in grades 10 to 12.
The Mercury