Brussels, 27/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Eurydice Network published a study, on 26 March, on physical education and sport at school in 30 European countries. The first of its kind, the report may be considered as a first attempt by the Commission to identify the main concerns and strengths regarding physical education in schools throughout Europe.
Compulsory physical education. Physical education is compulsory at primary and lower secondary level in all EU countries. The main aim of physical education lies in fostering children's physical, personal and social development. Promoting a healthy lifestyle is also often emphasised and health education has become its own mandatory subject in Ireland, Cyprus and Finland. Other countries, such as Germany, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Nordic countries, take a cross-curricular approach to the subject at school, linking the subject to social and natural sciences, for example. At primary school level, most countries include in their curricula the practice of basic physical education such as walking, running, high jump and throwing the discus, etc. Gradually, other activities are introduced to make the sports agenda richer. Several sports disciplines are compulsory (such as ball games) while others are optional. The national authorities responsible leave the schools more or less free to make their own choices. The number of hours that must be spent in mandatory sports activities in school curricula also varies greatly from one country to the next. Furthermore, in some countries, it is the public authorities that set the number of hours to be spent in mandatory sport, while in others it is the schools that decide. At primary level, the number of compulsory hours annually varies from 37 hours in Ireland to 108 hours in France. At secondary level, this number varies from 24-35 hours in Spain, Malta, and Turkey, to 102-108 hours in France and Austria.
Sport, the poor relation. Generally speaking, the number of hours devoted to physical education is rather low compared to other subjects, revealing a mixed interest for sport on the part of the public authorities, a situation that did not really change between 2006 and 2012. Extra-curricular sporting activities, however, are very widespread and often organised within a school framework, outside school hours. Apart from Malta and Norway at primary level and Ireland at the primary and secondary levels, all countries organise formal assessments of pupils' progress in sport. Finally, there is the question of training teachers in charge of physical education. At primary level, physical education is taught by both generalist and specialist teachers while, at secondary level, physical education teachers tend to be subject specialists.
Profile of sport to be raised. For the years ahead, two-thirds of EU countries are planning reforms to raise the profile of physical education in school programmes, especially by increasing the number of hours spent on physical education at school (Portugal and Finland, for example), while other countries are planning to diversify the provision of organised physical activity at school (such as Greece and Hungary). (IL/transl.jl)