On the occasion of the Olympic and Paralympic week launched on Monday - notably in the form of a choreography by Fauve Hautot inviting children to dance - Jean-Michel Blanquer and Roxana Maracineanu announce their plan to make the students more active.
With the idea that the Paris 2024 Games, led by Tony Estanguet, can provide the impetus. The Minister of Sports, the Minister of National Education and the head of the Games organizing committee exclusively explain how.
Why do you want to develop physical activity at school?
JEAN-MICHEL BLANQUER. I put a lot of emphasis on reading because it is the first of all battles. Symmetrically, you have to be very active on the challenges of physical activity. Its decline, especially in adolescence, is a global phenomenon. Hence the importance of adopting good habits from an early age. This is a subject that we share with Roxana Maracineanu and Tony Estanguet, with the idea of taking steps by 2024. We wish now to appeal to schools, to all those who will have the project to guarantee 30 minutes of physical activity per day in the lives of their students. Different educational tools will be available to teachers.
Tony Estanguet, can you give us some examples?
TONY ESTANGUET . In support of school sport, we can relaunch games of yesteryear, to move during recess. The hawk, the hopscotch, the bullet to the prisoner. Active breaks, in the form of exercises, can also be offered between two lessons in the classroom.
JMB . Just as one should not be impressed by reading or by music, one should not be impressed by physical activity, there is nothing complicated. The teachers are already doing great things, we want to offer them more tools, cooperation, support. And create desire in children thanks to the momentum of the Games.
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TE . We are not there to create a generation of top athletes but to help meet social challenges. Even if in Paris 2024, our primary mission is to organize the Games, it is our responsibility to make this generation move more. School is the best place to make an impact.
On what basis will the system be launched at the start of the next school year?
JMB . The logic of all the initiatives is voluntarism. We want all of this to be disseminated throughout France on the basis of calls for projects and calls for expressions of interest. The interest of the Games is that it makes you want and it creates desire.
ROXANA MARACINEANU. In line with the Games, we can embark on a path where the body has more place at school, as in the Nordic countries where we can learn by moving. These models can inspire teachers. In many areas, school teachers are already working in collaboration with sports educators. We have a challenge to develop this co-intervention to build educational projects.
Educational projects that are not necessarily focused solely on sport?
RM . It can of course go beyond. Our aquatic ease project provides learning around how the body becomes familiar with water and reacts in case of danger but also allows to be made aware of what is the element water, sustainable development, Archimedes' push. The 30-minute physical activity device can be an opportunity to talk about the place of little girls and boys in a given space and of the individual in a group.
JMB These projects have health, but also educational and pedagogical challenges. Physical activity must be more central to our lives and help balance children. We must operate this revolution.
Is the aquatic comfort plan intended for the youngest children likely to develop?
RM The principle of the blue classes has been tested in certain territories, via sports associations. Schools will now be able to position themselves for this aquatic comfort label. A school teacher can thus be a pilot and hire the students of the class. Our agents from the Ministry of Sports will then activate the association which on the territory will set up reception conditions for a week to allow kindergarten children to familiarize themselves with water. It is a strong commitment of the Ministry of National Education in the fight against drowning.
JMB . All of this is consistent with our educational policy, which is the school of trust. Self-confidence, trust in others go together. It is a virtuous circle.