PH has world’s second-highest proportion of school-going kids lacking physical activity – study
Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza is batting for the revival of wide-ranging school-based sports programs, saying these would help fight illegal drug abuse, foster wholesome physical activities among the youth and sustainably produce superior Filipino athletes in the years ahead.
“There’s no question highly dynamic school-based individual and team sports will keep many of our children away from drugs, while allowing us to spot and develop future athletes at an early age,” Atienza said ahead of the Nov. 30 opening in Manila of the 30th SEA Games.
Atienza urged Congress to quickly restore comprehensive sports programs across all public as well as private elementary and high schools by bringing back the Bureau of Physical Education and School Sports (BPESS).
The BPESS was abolished in 2001, when Congress passed the Governance of Basic Education Act that reorganized the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) into what is now the Department of Education (DepEd).
“Congress clearly blundered when it closed down the BPESS,” Atienza, former three-term mayor of Manila, said.
Atienza earlier filed House Bill 1108, which seeks to rebuild the BPESS under a reinstated DECS in lieu of the DepEd.
“Vigorous school sports will also help address the utter lack of physical activity among Filipino children,” Atienza pointed out.
The Philippines has the second-highest proportion of school-going children aged 11 to 17 lacking physical activity at 93.4 percent, according to a global study by the London-based independent journal The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.
Globally, an average of 81 percent of school-going children in 146 countries were insufficiently physically active, failing to meet current physical activity guidelines of the World Health Organization.
South Korea had the highest proportion of school-going children with inadequate physical activity at 94.2 percent.
Next to South Korea and the Philippines, Cambodia and Sudan had the highest proportion of school-going children lacking physical activity at 91.6 percent and 90.3 percent, respectively.PR