Qilin No. 2 Middle School students in a PE class. Daily Sunshine

Students at Buxin Primary School practice jumping rope in a PE class. Courtesy of the school

Since the beginning of this semester, compulsory education schools in Shenzhen have implemented a new measure to ensure that students engage in a daily physical education (PE) class as part of new educational reforms.

Shenzhen is the first city in the country to require schools to arrange daily PE for students at the compulsory education level. China's compulsory education covers primary school and junior high school.

School practices 

Buxin Primary School in Luohu District adopted a "3+1+1" model, which consists of three regular PE classes, one music-based exercise class, and one sports game class to ensure a total of five PE classes per week.

Under the new measure, the number of PE classes at the school rose to 200. 

Because the current number of employed PE teachers is not enough to teach all the new classes, the school had to assign teachers from other subject areas to lead many of the PE classes.

Liu Xunhua, a Chinese-language teacher at the school, has taken on the role of a part-time PE teacher. Liu leads students in activities such as jump rope and jumping jacks.

"Everything is for the health of the students, and we support the new measure to include a daily PE class," said Liu. Like other nonprofessional PE teachers, Liu took PE training courses and found opportunities to learn from professional PE teachers by observing their classes.

A key issue faced by many schools is that there is limited space in which the new PE classes can be held.

The second phase of the Buxin school's expansion project is still undergoing, which has caused a shortage of spaces in which PE classes can be held. 

"All possible spaces were used for PE. At most, there will be eight classes in PE at the same time," said Sun Shou-ping, director of the school's PE team. 

Shenzhen Nanshan Experimental Educational Group Qilin No. 2 Middle School began to implement a daily PE class as early as November 2021. 

The decision was made one month after the school conducted a physical fitness test for all new students, which showed that the number of students in excellent physical health ranked at the bottom of Nanshan District.

To change the situation, the school reformed its PE program and began to use other break times to allow students to practice long-distance running.

The school also allocated more teachers to instruct PE classes. At present, the school is trying out intelligent sports bracelets to achieve real-time monitoring, ensure that each child receives a suitable amount of exercise, and work out personalized sports training programs for students.

Longhua Foreign Languages School (Group) also makes full use of all spaces in the school. For example, students can practice running uphill and do jumping exercises on the steps. If there are too many PE classes scheduled at the same time, teachers can also take students to the public basketball court at the Luhuci park, which is just across the street from the school playground.

Public opinion 

Yuan Yinuo, a sixth grader from Buxin Primary School, believes sports activities help relieve stress, especially considering the pressure graduating class students are under to study and take exams.

Chen Xinru, a grade 8 student from Xin'an Middle School (Group), said that daily PE class can increase their capacity for learning. "When I am tired, I can relax by running or playing basketball and I can become more focused in class," said Chen. 

Luo Xing, a PE teacher from the junior section of the Xin'an school, said that daily PE class is a good thing for students' physical and mental health. 

However, some parents reached by Shenzhen Daily were concerned about the reduced learning time for other subjects, despite agreeing on the importance of daily PE classes. 

On Feb. 3, a physics teacher who has been working in Shenzhen for over 20 years left a comment on a message board of the People's Daily online, saying that adding daily PE is a good intention, but it would be hard for him to complete normal teaching tasks for physics because some of his classes have been replaced by PE classes.

In a reply, the city's education authority said that schools can independently determine the number of weekly class hours and the specific duration of each class for each subject, and the schools can also reasonably arrange the courses of each subject accordingly.

Cases in other cities 

At the beginning of 2021, Beijing issued 20 measures to strengthen physical education in primary and secondary schools to enhance students’ physical health. 

Authorities have also encouraged schools in the basic education stage to open at least five PE classes per week in primary schools, four to five classes per week in junior high schools, and three to five classes per week in high schools. 

Shanghai's sports development regulation, which took effect Jan. 1 this year, seeks to ensure that students participate in at least one hour of physical exercise every day while in school.