Fit for nothing?

By Liu Sha Source:Global Times Published: 2012-11-28 0:40:05

 

Students compete in a women's 800-meter race in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Photo: CFP
Students compete in a women's 800-meter race in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Photo: CFP



"Blaming the cancellation of long-distance runs on the deterioration of students' physical fitness is irresponsible," says PE teacher Zhao Jisheng, 60, irate at the end of his beloved sport.

Earlier this month, the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, canceled the women's 3,000-meter race and men's 5,000-meter race in its annual school sports meeting, claiming health risks as most students were not in condition for the run, the Wuhan Evening News reported.

Some 30 universities in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, have discarded long-distance runs for similar reasons, the China Business View reported.

"Lack of stamina and not enough daily practice make long-distance runs risky. Schools have been forced to act out of safety concerns," said Qiao Xiaoshan, an associate professor from the Xi'an-based Xidian University, and PE researcher.

Qiao added that some 50 students aged over 16 have dropped dead during long-distance runs during the past decade.

"Why does this generation seem weaker?" Zhao, a professor at the College of PE and Sports of the Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times that he has been asking this question at seminars. "This question causes nothing but silence."

Soviet methods

The PE class in his college has seen dramatic changes during the past 40 years. The old coercive way, transplanted from the Soviet Union, where long-distance runs played a major role, has been replaced by some entertaining activities like chess and tai chi on campus, said Zhao.

In Zhao's eyes, letting students choose freely has mollycoddled them.

Three decades ago, Zhao's students were ordered to get up at 6 am and complete a 3,000-meter run before the first class in the morning.

"Several grumbled, however, all of them had to go. Long-distance runs helped them deal with stress and improved their heart-lung function," said Zhao, adding that students nowadays do not need to endure hardship during the races and have lost a chance of training themselves.

Around 40 percent of students failed the college's latest general fitness test. "It was impossible in the past, when everyone had to pass, but now, students do not seem to care," said Zhao.

A national study released in 2011 showed that over a period of 25 years, most physical indices for college students have seen a decline.

Gaokao blamed

Only 8 percent of college students work out every day, according to a survey of over 4,000 respondents conducted by the 21st Century Education Research Institute.

The survey showed that a range of entertainment options have taken away time spent on sports.

"This decline of physical condition is directly connected with a lack of training before entering the college and a vanishing interest in sports," said Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the education research institute.

China has nominal physical standards for college admission. But when admitting students who have survived the college entrance exam, or gaokao, colleges have to lower their physical standards to accept their "fragile bodies" based on their test scores.

Even compulsory freshman military training has been curtailed from two months to only two weeks, as many could not take the intensity of military exercise.

During Peking University's military training this autumn, 1,298 of roughly 3,500 participants went to the hospital suffering respiratory infections, sunburn and heatstroke.

Tough classes

Wang He, 34, a PE teacher in Jilin Province and one of Zhao's former students, echoed Xiong.

As the run-up to the gaokao begins, Wang is prepared to have another rather relaxed semester. "I barely teach during this semester because students are busy cramming for this exam and the PE classroom has been occupied for self-study."

The Ministry of Education stated earlier this month that it was keen to make PE a bigger part of the gaokao. But schools still largely ignore PE.

However, Shandong Province has taken a step forward, despite torrents of objections. Provincial education officials said that students will need to take the PE test during the gaokao from 2013. However, since it is a trial program, PE will not be calculated into the final score.

As far as Wang is concerned, using the gaokao, blamed for the loss of PE classes, as an incentive to bring students back to the running track is rather ironic. "I doubt if students who rarely work out can complete this upcoming new part."

Xiong Yang, a 15-year-old student who recently transferred to the Experimental High School attached to Beijing Normal University from Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, is an example.

Xiong told the Global Times he is upset because he has never learned how to do the exercises or taken any formal PE courses before. His teacher, Chen Chen, said she had seen many transfer students like Xiong.

"Maybe students in other provinces, where they have to prepare for the grueling exam, bear more pressure," Xiong Bingqi said, referring to the relative ease of the exam in Beijing, where students can get into top universities with considerably lower scores. He added that the PE test's inclusion in the gaokao would change some schools' negligent attitudes.

"Reform on this gaokao-oriented education system in high school is urgently needed. We can't let our next generation get weaker and weaker, even though the number of gold medals won at the Olympic Games keeps rising," Xiong added.

 



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