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March 24, 2015

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Adolescents rushing to get fit for PE exam

By Wu Huixin | March 24, 2015, Tuesday | Print Edition

THE first round of the annual physical exercise exam for ninth graders was held on Saturday. The second round, for those who failed in the first round, will be held in early April.

Since the physical exercise exam is part of the high school entrance examination, which determines which senior high school a ninth grader can attend, examinees are now preparing vigorously.

Junior high school students spend most of their time hitting the books, thus passing the PE examination without training is difficult for many.

A couple of training organizations claiming to have national-level coaches and athletes have opened in recent years, catering to teens desperate to get in shape in a short period of time.

Two weeks ago, teenage students fearful of failing the PE exam swarmed to the organizations in hopes of landing a better score. High course fees didn’t deter many of the students.

“It takes nearly 20 classes to get full marks in the PE examination if the examinee has ordinary physical strength,” said a coach surnamed Zhou at Hangzhou Zhengnengliang Training Organization. “However, it takes longer if his or her body strength is poor.”

The training organization charges 150 yuan (US$24) for every 90-minute class. Zhou said all of the coaches are PE teachers from city schools and two are national-level athletes.

As for the eighth graders who will take the PE exam next year, Zhou recommends they begin training this summer.

“The earlier the better,” he said.

The generally poor results on the exam highlight what many believe is a growing crisis as too many children don’t get enough exercise these days.

Last year, central government launched a newly amended National Student Physical Health Standard. It rigidly stipulated that high school and university students who failed to get a score of 50 (full mark is 100) on the physical fitness exam cannot graduate.

It was quickly dubbed “the strictest standard ever in history” by the public when it came into effect.

Soon afterward, Wenzhou Medical University in southern Zhejiang Province released its physical fitness test results — 90 percent of freshmen hovered between the cut-off scores. Not one student had an “excellent” score.

The university then stipulated that all its students had to work out three times a week for a duration of at least 60 minutes.

In addition, university students began to play sports in their spare time knowing the physical fitness test score also partly determines whether they qualify for a scholarship.

“I used to play computer games on weekends, but I now have to work out to strengthen my body,” said Cliff Zhou, a Zhejiang Sci-tech University sophomore.

A survey by City Evening News showed that nearly 60 percent of university students prefer watching videos and playing online games rather than doing outdoor sports. Half of the respondents admitted they hardly work out in their free time, and only 8 percent said they exercised regularly.

“My roommate would order takeaway rather than go to the canteen as he thought walking to be too troublesome,” Zhou said. “That is fairly common on campus. Some university students are seemingly stuck in their chairs and cannot move anymore.”

The central government has conducted six large-scale surveys about the physical fitness of adolescents since 1986. A comparison of results shows students have a progressively declining level of fitness.

“High stature with low physical fitness,” was how medical specialist Zhong Nanshan once described present-day Chinese adolescents.

The deterioration of physical fitness can be attributed to a series of factors.

For starters, life is more convenient. People often take elevators rather than walk up a flight of stairs, do chores with machines and prefer driving to walking.

All of this reduces the amount of exercise kids get in daily life.

Second, the diet has changed. In the past adolescents were mainly vegetarian as meat was often in short supply. Today, foods have been enriched, and high-calorie fast foods are popular among adolescents. Ingesting too many calories with little physical exercise leads to poor fitness levels.

To encourage adolescents to work out more and stimulate the development of sports, the Hangzhou government added swimming to the PE test of the high school entrance examination in 2012.

“A vigorous mass campaign for swimming has begun since Hangzhou natives Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen won swimming gold medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games,” said Gu Junjian of the Hangzhou Sports Bureau. “The city is preparing to build an extracurricular activity center for primary and secondary students. It is expected to boost the development of adolescent sports.”

Hangzhou


 

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