The State Council on May 6 issued a document to further promote physical education in schools and improve students’ physical health.

The document urged schools to ensure sports classes, improve the effect of sports classes and enhance after-class exercises and scientific exercise instruction.

The document asked for joint efforts from schools, families, communities and society to guarantee at least one hour of exercise every day for every student.

By 2020, schools’ physical education conditions should reach national levels, and students’ sports lessons and exercise time can be fully guaranteed, it said.

The document urged schools to improve their sports lessons by cultivating students’ interest in exercise and helping them develop the habit.

To improve the national sports and health curriculum, the document asked schools to build a sports curriculum system that could link physical education at various grade levels.

And it also urged middle and primary schools to offer sports courses according to the national curriculum.

It asked universities to arrange compulsory and elective sports lessons for students and encouraged them to open soccer, basketball and volleyball courses.

Besides that, schools should also involve students’ after-class activities in their teaching plan and allow students to exercise at least one hour a day at school, said the document.

Schools for the physically challenged should vary their physical education lessons to fit the needs of different kinds of disabilities and guarantee every student could enjoy their right to exercise, said the document.

The document urged all regions to utilize local resources to allocate quality physical education staff to schools according to the standards, support schools to improve their sports facilities and make the facilities an important part of the standardized construction of compulsory education.

In addition, they should also help schools build sports fields, provide sports equipment and enough teaching equipment for the teachers, said the document.

Governments at all levels should provide financial support for physical education, perfect the policy support by purchasing sports services, and gradually build social forces to support schools’ physical education development, said the document.

The document urged schools to guarantee the funds for physical education, encouraged private capital to support physical education and also called for increased investment in physical education through multiple channels.