Coming soon: more playtime as homework

The Ministry of Education wants students to hone their sports skills. It plans to make homework for physical education classes mandatory while cutting down those for math and language, a ministry official said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Without doubt, physical education will help improve kids' health in a big way. Increased physical activity is known to reduce eyesight problems in children. A 2019 National Health Commission survey says the prevalence of shortsightedness, or myopia, was as high as 53.6 percent among primary and secondary school students, and 81 percent among high school students. The same survey says myopia's prevalence increases from 15.7 percent among Grade 1 students to 59 percent among Grade 6 students, and those six years are crucial for containing it. It said that 40 minutes of outdoor activity every day can reduce the risk of myopia by 23 percent, as it helps kids to relax their eyes, and their bodies to absorb vitamin D.

Besides, during outdoor activity, the children come in contact with various kinds of bacteria and germs, which help strengthen their immune system.

The Chinese Nutrition Society's health guideline proposes outdoor sports activities every day for preschool kids and for at least an hour every day for those aged between 7 and 12. After the outdoor activity, the exhausted children can have a sound sleep, which will help their bodies grow faster.

In practice, physical education classes are often hijacked by teachers of other "more important" subjects. The ministry's plan thus underlines the importance it attaches to physical education. Giving children physical education-related homework is the best way to implement that plan. Here's hoping we will soon see more children playing in playgrounds in the evenings, instead of just sitting and studying at home.