Promote physical education in public schools

(Baonghean) - During the days (from March 4 to March 9, 2012) in Vinh City, the 15th Phu Dong Sports Festival (HKPĐ) of the whole province will take place, leading up to the 8th National HKPĐ taking place in Can Tho in August 2012. On this occasion, Nghe An Newspaper interviewed Mr. Nguyen Hoang, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Nghe An.

PV: Could you please tell us the purpose and meaning of the Phu Dong Sports Festival?

Mr. Nguyen Hoang: Phu Dong Sports Festival is considered a Sports Festival for high school students to continue to maintain and promote the Campaign "All people exercise following the example of great Uncle Ho", regularly practice and compete in sports among high school students to improve health, develop physical fitness, and contribute to comprehensive education for students. Thereby, to evaluate physical education and sports activities in high schools; at the same time, to discover talents and sports talents to supplement the provincial sports teams participating in the 8th National Sports Festival in 2012 in Can Tho City and annual high-performance sports competitions.

Accordingly, the school-level sports festival is held once a year; at the district and provincial levels, it is held twice a year. Participants are students in primary, secondary and high schools, with the aim of improving health and physical training for students.

PV: To promote physical education in general schools in the province in the coming time, what solutions has the Department had?

Mr. Nguyen Hoang: In recent times, physical education and sports in schools in particular have had many positive changes, reflected equally in all aspects; in the whole province, over 90% of schools have implemented well-organized extracurricular programs, regularly organized sports activities for students, and 100% of schools have implemented well-regulated physical education programs according to regulations.

The form of organization and content of physical education and sports training for students are increasingly diverse and gradually becoming routine. Many rich training contents are included in extracurricular activities, especially ethnic sports and folk games are integrated with the contents of the emulation movement "Building friendly schools, active students". The team of physical education teachers and lecturers in schools are trained and their knowledge is improved, gradually meeting the requirements of expertise and profession; facilities, playgrounds, training grounds, sports facilities, and sports training and competition equipment in schools at all levels have been initially planned and invested in construction.

However, in the whole province, there are still some schools where physical education in schools has not received due attention, sometimes even neglected, lacking equality compared to other subjects. The system of playgrounds serving physical education and school sports is still lacking in area, the facilities are not uniform and outdated, affecting teaching and learning.

Implementing the Vietnam Sports Development Strategy to 2020, the Department of Education and Training has issued guiding documents and proposed solutions to promote physical education and sports in schools. Specifically: Improve the quality of teaching and learning physical education; innovate the content, curriculum, and physical education programs; develop extracurricular physical education, build various types of school sports clubs; encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities in clubs and sports talent classes. Consolidate and develop a recreational sports competition system suitable for each level of education, each region, and locality. Strengthen the development of mechanisms, policies, training, and standardization of the team of teachers and sports instructors; promote the mobilization of socialized resources to invest in building facilities, training equipment and tools in educational and training institutions. Strengthen the training of physical education teachers, and the professional development of extracurricular activities for sports instructors; Strengthening education and communication work in physical education and school sports activities...

Reporter: How has the Organizing Committee prepared for the 15th Provincial HKPĐ to be a success? What are the goals set by the Nghe An delegation in the upcoming National HKPĐ?

Mr. Nguyen Hoang: After receiving the official dispatch from the Ministry of Education and Training on the organization of the 8th HKPĐ, the Department of Education and Training advised the Provincial People's Committee to establish a provincial HKPĐ Organizing Committee, and issued an official dispatch guiding districts, cities, towns and schools to establish HKPĐ Organizing Committees at the same level.

Starting from the beginning of December 2011, districts organized district-level HKPĐ, and by mid-February, they organized cluster-level HKPĐ. Cluster 1 included districts on Route 7 (Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Con Cuong, Anh Son, Tan Ky competing in Tan Ky from February 7-10); cluster 2 included districts: Que Phong, Quy Chau, Quy Hop, Nghia Dan, Thai Hoa competing in Quy Chau from February 11-14; cluster 3 included districts: Thanh Chuong, Nam Dan, Hung Nguyen, Nghi Loc competing in Hung Nguyen district from February 15-18; cluster 4 included districts: Do Luong, Yen Thanh, Dien Chau, Quynh Luu, Cua Lo competing in Dien Chau district from February 19-22. The cluster-level competitions included: table tennis, badminton, shuttlecock, chess, soccer, and volleyball.

To serve the final round of the provincial HKPĐ taking place in Vinh City, the Organizing Committee has established sub-committees; assigned specific tasks to relevant members; selected and established a referee team for each sport, ensuring expertise, professionalism, objectivity, fairness... In particular, the Opening Ceremony will be held at the Labor Culture House Stadium on the morning of March 4, with impressive sports-themed content such as: torch relay, gymnastics performance; The Organizing Committee has assigned the sub-committees to prepare carefully, focus on practicing, and create specific scenarios so that the Opening Ceremony takes place in an exciting and grand manner, truly a festival for students. At the same time, the Organizing Committee has mobilized the facilities of the Provincial Sports Competition Center, Vinh City Gymnasium, functional gymnasiums of Huynh Thuc Khang High School; Phan Boi Chau High School, Provincial Ethnic Boarding School... to ensure the best service for the competitions.

That affirms that Nghe An is qualified to successfully organize the 8th National HKPĐ, Region III in Vinh City next April and is a good condition to host the 9th National HKPĐ in 2016 in Nghe An province.

The goal that Nghe An delegation set at the 8th National Sports Festival in 2012 taking place in Can Tho City this August is to be in the top 30 out of 63 provinces and cities. Since 2008, the sports movement in schools in Nghe An province has been continuously ranked 3rd in the country by the Ministry of Education and Training.

PV: Thank you!

Duy Nam (Implementation)