American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

 Issue: August 2005

Standards and Practice for Physical Education in China
Guoli Liang, Richard T. Walls, & Chunlei Lu

Abstract:
Imagine trying to implement a physical education program with only 17 cents per student each year in government funding; in China’s rural communities, they are forced to do just that. This article addresses the state of physical education in China, and compares its differences and similarities to physical education programs in the United States. Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has established national guidelines and standards for educating physical educators and for addressing the fitness needs of students. Students in grades one through 12 are required to complete a physical education program each year in order to advance to the next grade level. However there is evidence that physical education in China continues to be marginalized; one study found that a large majority of parents (79.5%) in rural areas in the northwest did not believe there was a need for physical education in schools.

Article category: Standards and Practice in Asian Physical Education-Part 1