DepEd shifts PE focus from sports training to fitness

Aside from including physical education subjects in Grade 1 and onwards to all levels until end of high school, the Department of Education (DepEd) has said it will shift its focus to inculcating personal health and fitness instead of the previous orientation on sports training.   Prof. Stella Marie Urbiztondo of the University of Asia & the Pacific, one of the K+12 consultants of the DepEd, told GMA News Online in an interview that the changes will be made this school year 2012-2013.   "PE will be introduced starting in Grade 1 with once-a-week 30 minute sessions. The K-12 curriculum will have an emphasis on fitness, wherein sports is only one of the aspects. Kung dati nakikita natin na ang PE ay sports-dominated, ngayon ang emphasis ay physical activities as the means to develop fitness unlike in the past when it is sports to develop fitness," Urbiztondo explained.   She added that PE teachers in Grade 1 will teach, among others, locomotor (movement) skills and manipulation or handling of objects.   "The lesson has to be suitable to the age and maturity of the individual. As they are developing physically, the movements will be put in the context of games and sports. The movements will become more complicated as the student moves through the K-12 curriculum, with deeper understanding of the actions."   Urbiztondo said the K-12 changes were imparted to school sports supervisors and PE teachers during their summer in-service training.

In another interview with GMA News Online, DepEd Assistant Secretary Toni Umali explained that students who excel in PE and sports will have to be given additional attention, for which the DepEd has a select list of public high schools that implement a special program in sports. These special high schools are already in place, he pointed out. — Earl Victor Rosero, GMA News