Leo, 12 years old, student « first of ESO [éducation secondaire obligatoire] », the equivalent of 5th grade, in a middle school in the suburbs of Madrid, has just finished his mid-first term physical education exam. On the program: no sporting exercise but a questionnaire asking him the names of around twenty muscles and the main joints of the human body, the flexion and extension mechanisms of which he studied during almost a third of the lessons…
Not only is Spain at the bottom of European countries in the number of hours of sports practice at school, but physical education includes a large proportion of theoretical lessons. Barely two hours a week are devoted to sport in middle schools in most Spanish regions, where the development of school programs is decentralized.
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Only the community of Madrid approved a third hour of compulsory physical education at school, in 2020, after several years of debate on its implementation. “It is good for physical and mental health, it helps to combat obesity and overweight, but also to learn to live together in society and to know how to lose and win with sportsmanship”, ended up deciding the president of the region, the conservative Isabel Diaz Ayuso, while language teachers spoke out against the measure. This third hour was taken from the two hours of optional teaching of a second modern language (often French) or music.
More than all the other arguments brandished by professionals, it is the sudden increase in childhood obesity which has moved the debate forward in Spain. In 2016, when the Madrid region launched the idea, 20% of students were overweight, 10% suffered from obesity and 80% did not play any sport outside of school. The latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), published in August, estimate that 39% of Spanish children are overweight and 29% obese.
“Five hours of sport per week”, according to studies
“We are at the back of the line in terms of number of hours of sports at school and we are reduced to fighting for three hours per week, even though we know very well that studies on the issue recommend five hours per week”underlines the president of the federation of official colleges of physical education professionals (Colef), Vicente Gambau.
He also insists on the importance of guaranteeing the quality of teaching by specialist teachers, whereas in primary school it is not uncommon for lessons to be taught by generalist school teachers. “For us, this is a serious error, because it is during primary education that children must acquire appropriate sports customs and habits”, adds Mr. Gambau.
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