HSSF HOSTED THE 4-DAY MEETING OF EUROPEAN PHYSICAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
EUPEA representing 200 000 physical education teachers held its discussion in Budapest
HSSF hosted the 4-day meeting of European Physical Education Association in Budapest (EUPEA Forum Meeting and Board Meeting) where participants attended the annual assembly as well as discussed the principles of national curricula in professional workshops. The event was opened by Claude Scheuer, Tibor Navracsics and Gabor Balogh.
European Physical Education Association (EUPEA), an umbrella organization representing more than 30 member institutes organized its forum meeting between 1 and 4 October at the Danubius Grand Hotel on Margaret Island, which was opened by Claude Scheuer, president of EUPEA, Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for culture, education and youth and sports, and Gabor Balogh, president of HSSF, former world champion and European champion in modern pentathlon.
Tibor Navracsics has been the first to speak at the opening. The Commissioner emphasized:
„ I would like to outline my priorities for sport in the coming years. I will concentrate on two of them where I count on your support most: promoting physical activity in general and grassroots sport in particular. Our society is facing immense challenges today: from maintaining our economic competitiveness through integrating refugees and migrants to tackling radicalisation and terrorism. These are all very complex problems, and we need to use all our resources wisely to overcome them. Sports, and more specifically grassroots sports have a vital role to play in this.
Sport and physical activity are good for all of us as individuals and as members of society. On an individual level, sport is about having fun, being healthy and feeling good about yourself. But it is also about something much bigger. Sport and physical activity bring people from different backgrounds together. They help to create friendships and build communities. Sport can be an effective tool for fostering social inclusion”
The host of the event, Claude Scheuer stated that it is an important aim of EUPEA to support the EU’s professional work with their expert advice, given their continuous work in analysing the situation of PE and school sport in the member states.
„We would like to highlight that besides raising the number of PE classes, the development of PE classes’ quality is crucial” said the EUPEA president.
Besides having the annual assembly, the participants discussed the most current issues of quality physical education. Gábor Balogh, president of HSSF has also added:
„It is our great pleasure that the methodological handbooks and programs we launched has also attracted the attention of several relevant professional organisations from the member states of the European Union. Today we are comparing the different regulations of curricula from several member states and review those good practices that are worth to adopt.” he summarised the programme.
HSSF considers the event as one of the most important result of its professional networking activity since both EUPEA invitees and the representatives of the four Visegrad countries attended the conference, further strengthening the cooperation in the field of physical education.
The opening speech of Commissioner Navracsics can be reached here
