Lesson of exercise still to be learned

There has always been much more to learning than just studying academic subjects. School should prepare pupils for all aspects of life.

Girls achieved better overall results in the recent Leaving Certificate than boys, whom they outperformed in Irish, English, languages, maths, physics, biology and chemistry. The only subjects where boys did better were those in which comparatively few girls sat the Leaving Certificate.

Physiologically, girls mature faster than boys, which affords them a natural academic ability by secondary school. This is reflected throughout the Western world.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently found that Ireland ranks second in the world in children’s reading ability, where girls outperform boys by one-third. But it was significant that three out of the top four achievers in this year’s Leaving Certificate were boys.

One of the more positive aspects of the survey was the number of students who stated that they “enjoy school”. The number went up significantly in just one year from 81% to 85%. It would be particularly interesting to compare that with their parents, or grandparents, who often viewed school with a mixture of fear and dislike, if not actual detestation.

Physical education is part of the curriculum, but it is not part of the examination system, with the result that it is being largely ignored at a vital time of life. This is having a distorting impact on our educational system and it may well have very serious long-term

implications for the health of the nation.

Boys spend an average of seven hours a week on organised sporting activities, whereas girls spend less than half that time. But there is a distinct and very disconcerting drop-off in the sporting activities of pupils between the Junior and Leaving Certificate cycles.

Some 75% of boys participated in sport up to the junior cycle, but this drops to 45% in the final two years, whereas 60% of girls participated at the junior level and this fell to just 35% during the senior cycle.

This is undoubtedly a factor contributing to the better performance of girls in the examinations, because sport has no place in the current assessment process of students.

Spending less time on sport, girls have more time for grinds and for study. They spend as much as one-third more time studying than boys in the senior cycle.

What is particularly disturbing about these figures is the fact that more than half of boys are effectively giving up sport at a very young age and almost two-thirds of girls.

This country already has a high level of heart disease and cutting back on aerobic activities at this formative stage of a young person’s life could have disastrous consequences.

A recent SLÁN survey found that only 48% of boys aged 15-17 years exercise vigorously at least four times a week, compared with 54% in 1998. The physical side of education is being ignored.

Jimmy Deenihan of Fine Gael describes this as “a medical time bomb”. We are storing up health problems that will cost a fortune in future, but these could be prevented with a small investment now.

Physical education is so important that it should be included in the Leaving Certificate without delay.