A “three-pillar model” is to be implemented: On the one hand, there will be additional exercise options outside of the classroom. In addition, external trainers should come to the schools and additional units should be on the program for those students who specifically need them.
The daily movement unit is thus the model that emerged from the demands for a daily gymnastics lesson after Austria’s poor performance at the Olympic Games in London 2012. The other name comes from the fact that the movement unit does not take place in physical education classes and does not necessarily have to last an hour.
Photo:
Bernhard Schiesser
“We’ll try something,” said Sports Minister Werner Kogler (Greens) at a press conference on Friday. The first pillar is about “a different understanding of gymnastics in school”. With “movement interventions”, which can last only a few minutes, the pupils are to be physically activated. This can also happen during the break or on the way to school. For the second pillar, they cooperate with clubs and sports associations that send trainers to schools. In total, more than 90,000 movement units in 1,500 classes and groups would be provided.
In the third pillar, teachers can nominate children who they see need for motor skills in consultation with their parents, according to Minister of Education Martin Polaschek (ÖVP). There should be specific offers for them. “Children shouldn’t see this as a punitive action, they should say they like it.”
Kogler justified the move away from the daily gymnastics lesson with financial reasons or the availability of the necessary teachers and the infrastructure. The Ministry of Sport is investing three million euros in the new offers in the next two school years – after that, or if you want to expand the pilot regions, there must be funds from the budget for this, says Kogler. A rollout to the whole of Austria would cost a three-digit million amount or just under. But: “Somebody should speak against it.” The initiative is an investment in greater happiness and healthier years of life.
Sport Austria President Hans Niessl also did not want to talk about the discussions of the past. For the various activities you offer all the resources you have.
With the pilot regions, there will be pressure that more exercise is possible in schools and kindergartens and that it is cheaper than previously thought, said Kogler: In the end, necessity was made a virtue of and something wiser came out of it than initially thought.
The nine pilot regions are the district of Neusiedl or parts of Eisenstadt surroundings (Burgenland), the district of Korneuburg (Lower Austria), the regions of Leibnitz (Styria) and Carnica-Rosental (Carinthia), the district of Schwaz (Tyrol), the Bregenzerwald (Vorarlberg) the Salzburg districts of Aigen, Parsch and Salzburg Süd, parts of the Rohrbach district and the Urfahr area (Upper Austria) and in Vienna the Donaustadt district of Kagran.