This June 2, Emmanuel Macron announced that the practice of 30 minutes of sport per day in primary school will become compulsory at the start of the school year in September. 500,000 students from 7,000 voluntary schools are already applying this system, which aims to fight against children’s sedentary lifestyle.
This June 2, during a trip to Marseille, Emmanuel Macron has announced that primary school students will be required to do 30 minutes of sport per day from the start of the 2022 school year.. Accompanied by the new Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye, the Head of State insisted on the importance of physical activity for children. “It’s a real revolution, to both learn better (…) and have a real health prevention policy to fight against obesity and the sedentary lifestyle of many of our children and adolescents.“, explained Emmanuel Macron. Last January, two major circulars were published in the Official Bulletin of National Education: 30 minutes of daily physical activity and One School – One Club which further strengthen the place of sport in the school environment.
Nearly 500,000 students from 7,000 voluntary schools are already applying this system, which aims to fight against the sedentary lifestyle of children and its negative consequences on their health. Also, on the occasion of the Interministerial Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the State undertook to generalize the “30 minutes of daily physical activity” in all elementary schools by 2024, i.e. nearly 36,000 schools, in addition to the three hours of PE per week. Funding from the Ministry of National Education should make it possible to provide primary schools with sports equipment.
Sport at school: an issue of health, development, equality and success
“The values of sport are those of the Republic: respect for others, commitment, self-sacrifice“, recalled Jean-Michel Blanquer in February 2021 during the 5th edition of Olympic and Paralympic Week,.”We want to strengthen the place of sport and the body at school : to inscribe a lasting sporting ritual in the life of the child from an early age, to contribute to student success and equal opportunity, but also to forge enlightened citizens., for her part, declared Roxana Maracineanu. The Minister of Education and his sports counterpart at the time had insisted on the importance of encouraging the practice of sport at schoolnot only to provide students with the regular practice of physical activity but also for encourage the “live together“. In addition to the ambition to offer 30 minutes of sport per day for studentsthe project is built around two priority actions: learning to swim and drowning prevention with the “aquatic ease” plan, and the “know how to ride a bike” plan which is aimed at 6/11 year olds. Two additional learnings “to the fundamental knowledge provided by school: reading, writing, counting.”
- Know how to ride a bike: allow students to learn to ride a bike and to master it, but also to know the road signs and learn about the highway code. The objective of these 10 hours of training for children aged 6 to 11 is to enable “the practice of cycling independently for all children before entering college.” The deployment of this learning in the school or extracurricular framework must take place massively by 2022.
- Aquatic ease: the objective of this plan initiated in April 2019 is to allow children from an early age to be comfortable in the water and to learn to swim. It targets children from an early age since it is aimed at schoolchildren aged 4 to 6 years as part of learning during school, extracurricular or extracurricular time.