Strategic Director, HSFF
Quality Physical Education – UNESCO guidelines for policy stakeholders
16 November, 10:25–10:50
In recent years, respected organizations of the UN reflected several times on member states’ possible development and progression. Nowadays the WHO contributes massively R+D activities on the territory of chronic, non-communicable diseases (Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020), especially regarding physical activity (GAPPA 2018-2030 – WHO Global Action Plan for Physical Activity) and HEPA (HEPA Europe – European network for the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity), furthermore UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) pays huge attention to quality physical education.
The UNESCO’s International Charter of Physical Education and Sport[1] from 1978 has worded statements for the stakeholders:
- every human being has a fundamental right to access to physical education and sport
- the governments should recognize the necessity of well-trained teachers and careful planning in quality physical education
- resources should be invested in teacher training programs and in-service teacher trainings, and its development
- researches regarding the sufficiency of quality physical education should be supported
- collaboration should be established with the international aid organizations to deliver PE related content in their activities.
Caused by the new challenges UNESCO has revised the Charter in 2015[2], added such topics to the original content as gender equality, prohibition of distinction, social inclusion in and through sport. The revised Charter emphasizes the positive effects of regular physical activity, sustainability of sport, inclusion of disabled and child protection as well.
In addition to that UNESCO has published the document Quality physical education guidelines for policy-makers[3], and has attempted to compile its checklist for governments and stakeholders.
In the presentation I’ll give an overview of these UNESCO guidelines, and, based on that, I’ll attempt to draw conclusions regarding the Hungarian environment.
[1]http://unesco.org/education/pdf/SPORT_E.PDF
[2] http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002354/235409e.pdf
[3] http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002311/231101E.pdf