From September 1, 2024, it is established that sports lessons, like any other subject, are mandatory for all - regardless of the child's health status or physical abilities, writes Diena.
Instead of writing "exempt" in the "Sports" section, the family doctor should determine the appropriate physical activities and workload for each child in the certificate.
In collaboration with sports doctors and industry organizations, recommendations have been prepared on how this should be done, including the creation of individual plans. However, educators doubt the feasibility of implementing this in the near future.
If a student needs to adjust their physical activity for at least one semester, the school develops an individual curriculum with achievable outcomes, said Inga Upatniece, a representative of the Ministry of Education and Science, at a meeting of the Saeima subcommittee on sports, reminding that this is stipulated by the general education law.
In a survey of Latvian doctors, which included 107 respondents, 81% of whom were family doctors and 19% were doctors of other specialties, almost all recommended physical activity and participation in sports lessons for children.
The head of the Education, Science, and Culture Commission, Agita Zarinya-Sture, is concerned that all of this is viewed only from the perspective of doctors. If the sports teacher sees the family doctor’s certificate and a series of numbers (recommended modules), the question arises as to how this can be implemented in a lesson when there are 30 children in the class, and five need a different load and approach. Moreover, the teacher does not have just one class, but several.
"It is quite clear that this will not work, so one can say that we are halfway to the goal, as it is unclear how this will be implemented in practice. There is also the question of how parents understand such information," Zarinya-Sture said.
She also expressed skepticism about individual plans: they are intended not only for sports activities but also for children with learning and behavioral problems. And not all of them work, although a tremendous amount of effort has been invested in their development.
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