What Should Be Done On The Global Level?

As our group researches the importance of physical education in the Hawaii and the United States, we also look at the levels of physical education classes in other countries. All over the globe, children are learned physical activity skills that will hopefully help their health along with the people around them. Unfortunately, there are over 40 million children who do not have physical education programs in their schools. In 1995, the “Global Vision for School Physical Education” was created in Canada to help improve the dismal conditions that PE programs were in around the world. This document was intended to set guidelines as to what the standards of PE programs around the world should be. The creators of this document believed that if every country were to follow these basics, the world’s health and education as a whole would benefit.

China is also facing the same problems that the United States has. With the popularity of Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, and other fast food restaurants growing, the problem of obesity and unhealthy lifestyles has begun to plague China. Recently in 2007, The Chinese Ministry of Education developed a dance program to integrate into their PE classes. Some find it effective while others disagree. One teacher in Beijing has said, “Running and calisthenics are a more effective way to lose weight. Our school needs to hire a special teacher to teach dancing, and it will take up a lot of time”. Although health of Chinese is becoming worse, it is encouraging to see that the Government has already experimented with different programs in effort to alleviate the problem. Opportunity cost is one economic term that relates a lot to the situation in China. Spending money on hiring dance teachers or developing programs centered more on conventional activities such as running and sports are both opportunity costs because money is used on dance programs that have been proved not very successful. One implication would be that if China continues with their efforts to improve PE programs, the obesity trouble would be under control.
In Europe, efforts to improve the status of their PE system are in full force. The “European Physical Education Association” was created in 1991 to promote the importance of PE in Europe. PE programs have been required for all schools making classes required three times a week and everyday for elementary school students. The EUPEA understands that all countries have a different way of approaching PE programs which is why is it merely just a basic outline of rules that should be followed in order to ensure all countries have some sort of PE programs. EUPEA also makes sure there are qualified teachers to teach the programs. This association is an ideal example of what every country or group of counties should strive for. If struggling countries could organize a group dedicated to run PE programs, the number of young children without physical education would decrease dramatically. You can find more about EUPEA and ways to contact them by clicking here.
Most European countries and some Asian countries seem to be on the right track when it comes to PE. Not only have these countries created strong foundations to build off of, but they have also been able to experiment and learn from their mistakes. Third world countries still have no foundation to build off of. If first world countries such as the United States could help create a starting program to expose countries to the idea of PE, it could help those countries jump start into a healthy future.