The scale is rising, chaos is growing, and the high-level development of the youth sports education and training industry needs to be solved——
The hot sports field still needs cold thinking
Author: our reporter Deng Hui
"Guangming Daily" (April 21, 2022 Edition 07)
Editor's note
It is an important part of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation to promote the continuous development of my country's sports undertakings.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that children should pay attention to strengthening physical exercise, and families, schools, and society should create conditions for children to strengthen their bodies, so that they can grow up healthily like small trees, and become the pillars of the motherland when they grow up.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the party and the state have attached great importance to the physical health and sports work of young people, and have continuously issued relevant policies and regulations to guide the majority of young people to actively participate in sports and fitness, strengthen their physique, sharpen their will, and condense and rejuvenate their youthful power.
In this context, my country's youth sports education and training industry has ushered in a major development opportunity, which has formed a useful supplement to school sports.
However, with the explosive development of the industry, problems such as unsystematic courses, unprofessional teachers, unclear supervisory bodies, and lack of school-running guidance have emerged one after another. Guidance, support and regulation by relevant departments are urgently needed.
How to standardize the development of the youth sports education and training industry, avoid disorderly expansion of the industry, and make children more scientific and safer?
The reporter of this newspaper launched an investigation and made suggestions for the high-quality development of the youth sports education and training industry.
1 The industry blowout: the scale exceeds 100 billion yuan, and sports training has become a super "blue ocean"
One weekend in April, the spring sun was shining brightly, and there was a lot of people in the square of a community outside Beijing's North Fifth Ring Road.
Wearing bright helmets and roller skates, several four or five-year-old "Xiaodouding" are practicing roller skating under the guidance of a coach.
Starting, swinging arms, crossing obstacles, and accidentally slipping, it will also get up and continue to move forward.
"Seeing that there are children skating in the community, the children are shouting that they want to learn, and a few parents 'save' a class. The children stay at home and watch TV, it is better to go out to exercise." The mother of the five-year-old boy Doudou told reporters .
At 10:00 in the morning, the reporter came to the North Park of Beijing Olympic Forest Park. The football field open to the outside world has long been occupied by the children's sports training class.
"New Journey", "Extraordinary", "Ge Yue"... The children wore different clubs' jerseys and ran on the court to their heart's content.
The cram school is cold and the sports field is hot.
The "2021 Public Fitness Behavior and Consumption Research Report" shows that 76% of parents believe it is necessary to enroll their children in sports training classes.
The reporter's research also found that with the implementation of the "double reduction" policy, sports training that was originally at the bottom of the "disdain chain" of interest classes is becoming the "new favorite" of parents and children.
"Most of our classmates take sports training classes outside the school, some learn badminton, some learn martial arts, and some learn ice skating." Kun Kun, a third-grade primary school student in Shanxi Province, said: "Every time you finish exercising, just one word, Cool!"
Under the strong market demand, the youth sports education and training industry has ushered in a vigorous growth period.
In recent years, some enterprises in the original subject education and training track have gradually transformed into the track of physical education and training, such as New Oriental, TAL, Dazhi, Xueersi and other large education and training institutions have begun to incorporate physical education into their training operations. category.
Relevant data shows that from 2014 to 2019, the size of my country's children's sports training market has maintained an annual growth rate of more than 40%, and the market size in 2019 has reached 59.98 billion yuan.
Since the release of the "double reduction" policy, there have been more than 33,000 new arts and sports training enterprises across the country, an increase of 99% compared with the same period last year.
A 2022 China quality education industry report analysis believes that physical education has developed rapidly due to favorable policies, and the market is still heating up.
By 2023, the size of my country's children's sports training market is expected to exceed 130 billion yuan, and youth sports education and training will become a super "blue ocean".
"Take junior high school as an example, it is difficult for students to master sports skills only by relying on 3 physical education classes a week. To be proficient, consolidated and improved, a sports skill must be trained after class. At the same time, school sports teachers and resources are also It is difficult to meet the growing demand for diversified physical exercise of the current students." Chen Aiguo, Dean of the School of Physical Education of Yangzhou University, believes that a healthy and high-quality physical education and training industry will form a beneficial supplement to school sports and better promote the all-round development of students.
2 Behind the warming: multiple thrusts such as policy orientation and change in the concept of educating people
Table tennis training costs 8,400 yuan for 35 classes; taekwondo training costs 14,400 yuan; swimming training costs 12,000 yuan for 52 classes... The reporter found that most of the youth sports training programs are expensive, with the average class hour in first-tier cities (Note: Generally calculated in 1.5 hours) is more than 200 yuan, and the second- and third-tier cities charge slightly lower 30-50 yuan.
Some niche events, such as figure skating, golf, equestrian and other class-hour prices are even close to 500 yuan.
In this regard, parents have generously donated their money, "it is worth it for the children" and "having a good body is the most important".
"As my country's per capita GDP approaches the level of middle- and high-income countries, according to the general law of the development of the global sports industry, youth sports consumption will usher in a huge space for development." Wang Xueli, director of the Sports Industry Research Center of Tsinghua University, believes that behind this, policy-oriented, Multiple thrusts, such as changes in educational concepts and sports environment, are at work.
Policies have been introduced intensively, releasing positive signals.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the party and the state have attached great importance to the physical health and sports work of young people, and have continuously issued relevant policies and regulations to guide the majority of young people to actively participate in sports and fitness.
The reporter combed and found that in 2021 alone, 11 relevant policies will release positive signals for the sports education and training industry.
For example, the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Physical Health Management of Primary and Secondary Schools" issued by the Ministry of Education clearly requires "the establishment of youth sports clubs to encourage students to actively participate in football, basketball, volleyball and other sports training in their spare time and holidays"; The National Fitness Plan (2021-2025) requires that "sports administrative departments at all levels should take youth sports clubs as the main position for deepening the integration of sports and education, promote cross-departmental governance of sports, civil affairs, education, taxation, finance, etc., and introduce youth sports clubs. Specialized Policy Documents”, etc.
The implementation of the "double reduction" policy also provides time and money guarantees for parents and children to choose sports training.
Change in educational philosophy and build consensus on growth.
The successive introduction of policies has also had a profound impact on the educational philosophy of parents.
The educational function of sports is seen and valued by more and more parents.
"Not only do I want my child to learn a sports skill, but also let him learn how to communicate and cooperate in sports, cultivate tenacity, and never give up." Liu Qing, a parent from Jiangsu, told reporters.
The weight of the test is increased and the emphasis is raised.
In addition to the guidance of policies and the change of ideas, the increase in the weight of physical education subjects has increased the importance of parents and students.
In recent years, all parts of the country have implemented the entrance examination for sports, and the scores of sports items range from 30 to 100 points.
Sports events continue to create a good atmosphere.
Gu Ailing, Su Yiming, Su Bingtian, Yang Qian... During the interview, many teenagers blurted out the names of these Olympic athletes and regarded them as idols.
"The past few years have been a great year for sports events. The Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing Winter Olympics have been held one after another, followed by the Chengdu Universiade and the Hangzhou Asian Games. The spirit of hard work of athletes will also inspire more young people to devote themselves to sports and love. Go to the sports." Chen Aiguo said.
Under the joint efforts of many parties, positive effects are emerging.
Zhang Yimin, director of the Key Laboratory of Sports and Physical Health of the Ministry of Education of Beijing Sports University, noted that from the results of the national student physical health monitoring conducted by the Ministry of Education, students' physical fitness is showing a positive development trend, especially for primary and secondary school students. Continuous improving.
3 There are many hidden dangers: the curriculum and teachers are not standardized, and the supervision and guidance are still insufficient
Under multiple thrusts, the physical education and training industry has ushered in a major development opportunity.
But it is worth noting that the explosive growth of the industry has also buried many hidden dangers.
"In the survey of national youth sports training institutions (football and basketball) for several consecutive years, we found that unlike subject training, parents' 'satisfaction' seems to be extremely high. But this does not mean that every training institution is doing well. Wang Xueli believes that this kind of "satisfaction" reflects that parents have more pragmatic goals and expectations for their children's participation in physical training, such as "exercising", "playing with friends", and "eating well".
Due to the professional threshold of sports events, there has always been a high degree of information asymmetry in the youth sports education industry: "Due to the lack of professional knowledge and third-party evaluation systems, it is actually difficult for parents to judge whether the sports training their children participate in is professional or scientific. This asymmetry also allows non-standard institutions to take advantage." In order to make up for the lack of school-running norms, on December 21, 2021, the General Office of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China issued the "Code of Conduct for Extracurricular Sports Training", proposing that coaches maintain There are clear requirements such as certification, fees cannot exceed 3 months, and the per capita training area is not less than 3 square meters, and the sports training field is regulated.
However, the survey found that since the implementation of the above-mentioned "norms" four months ago, the actual effect is not satisfactory.
Among the many institutions visited by the reporter, very few can implement these requirements without discount. Many institutions have irregular problems, and there are even many "wild institutions" and "wild coaches" that do not even have school venues. Carrying out "guerrilla-style" training in the form of "save classes" in residential communities is difficult to guarantee both safety and scientificity.
Many experts said that to guide the healthy and orderly development of the youth physical education and training industry, it is not enough to rely on mandatory regulations. The absence of key factors such as industry standards, school guidance, and teacher qualification standards is also an important reason for the difficulty of implementing regulations.
There is a lack of industry standards, the teaching system is not standardized, and problems such as "teaching where you want to go" are prominent.
Not long ago, Ning Feng, a parent in Beijing, signed up his 6-year-old son for a football lesson. After a few lessons, he was greatly disappointed: "A lesson for an hour and a half, every time I play games with the ball for the first hour, and practice the belt for the next half hour. Ball. The amount of exercise is available, but what are the teaching goals at different stages? After the 90-class lesson package is completed, I don’t know what skill level the child can achieve.” Many parents told reporters that, except for the first time they applied for the class, they had no idea about the project In addition to the introduction, few institutions will clearly explain the syllabus, teaching system and other settings for children after participating in the training.
"There is a lack of clear industry standards for youth sports education and training." Wang Xueli introduced that for the classification of sports training, currently there is only the "Athlete Technical Level Standard" for competitive sports: "In the absence of unified sports teaching standards, some institutions Claims that 'the teaching material system originated from the United States', some advertise that 'the training content is in line with international standards', and some coaches say 'how others teach me, I will teach others', but the teaching system of many institutions is very non-standard, teaching Poor quality."
"Any sport, if there is no scientific and standardized teaching curriculum system, will be harmful to children." Chen Aiguo gave an example: "For example, roller skating, children before the age of 4 should be carefully selected for training, there are many inner and outer eights. Actions have high requirements on the knee and ankle joints. If the child's posture, movement, and force are not appropriate during the roller skating process, these parts are very easy to be injured, and even affect their growth and development. Another example is badminton, which requires children to disassemble the movements, There is a certain cognitive ability such as technical essentials, and the effect of enlightenment at the age of 4 is completely different from that of training at the age of 7. But parents do not understand these professional knowledge, and they are easily brainwashed by institutional sales.”
Most of them are part-time teachers, the qualification threshold for coaches is relatively low, and the phenomenon of "undocumented employment" still occurs.
Ning Feng told reporters that before enrolling the children in football lessons, the person in charge of the institution claimed that "all those who can come to teach the lessons were originally from the A-League." "Instructors change frequently in class".
In a youth taekwondo gym, brief information such as names and personal achievements of coaches, including active provincial athletes, are posted on the walls.
But the parents at the scene told reporters that they had never seen these "comparative" athletes. The one who came to the class had always been a young coach who "looked like a college student" and had never seen his information introduction.
"Most institutions set the recruitment requirements to be a bachelor's degree or above, love the sports they are engaged in, be caring, patient, and responsible, or use a single teacher qualification certificate in sports and health subjects as the entry condition for coaches. The threshold recruitment standards have led to a low-level coaching team in the physical education and training industry, which has seriously affected the quality of teaching services.” Wang Jianxun, a doctoral student at the School of Sports Science of Fujian Normal University, has worked as a part-time coach for 7 years.
In his observation, the coaches of most institutions are students and graduates of sports specialties in sports academies, and even some coaches are just ordinary basketball enthusiasts, just because they are "connected households" of members of the training institution, And most of them are part-time jobs, with great mobility, and there is a serious phenomenon of "undocumented employment".
In order to enhance the influence of the industry, some training institutions will hire some professional athletes. Although there has been a qualitative improvement in the teaching of sports skills, many of them do not understand the characteristics of children's physical and mental development, which deviates from the normal rules of youth sports teaching.
The regulatory system is imperfect, the management subject is unclear, and the boundaries of relevant rights and responsibilities are blurred.
Who is in charge of physical education and training institutions?
Many industry insiders report that this is a difficult problem to define.
"Among the more than 5,000 youth sports education and training institutions we surveyed, 46% are registered with the civil affairs department, 51% are registered with the industry and commerce department, and only about 3% belong to public institutions such as sports schools." Wang Xueli said that the above-mentioned different Institutional attributes make the supervisory bodies diverse, and the governance methods and boundaries are unclear.
"When people encounter problems, they go to the Sports Bureau, but in fact, our supervision authority is very small, and the governance methods that can be used are lacking, so it is difficult to have a deterrent effect on the organization." A staff member of the local sports bureau said helplessly.
The person in charge of a children's basketball organization in Yunnan told reporters that the imperfect supervision has directly led to a mix of practitioners in the market, and the level of institutions varies: "Not only will it cause harm to consumers, but it will also have a bad impact on institutions that run schools seriously."
There is a lack of school-running guidance, different policies have an angle, and there is no reference standard for the healthy development of institutions.
During the interview, many practitioners of training institutions also had difficulties: there are many relevant policies, which document should the development of institutions rely on?
Not only are they unclear, but sometimes different administrations have their own explanations.
"There is an angle between different policies." Wang Xueli introduced that the "Opinions on Regulating the Development of Off-campus Training Institutions" issued in 2018 stipulates that "Off-campus training institutions must be approved and obtained a school running license, and then register and obtain a business license before they can carry out training. ”, there is no distinction between discipline and non-discipline training institutions, but it can be understood that non-discipline training institutions such as sports also need to be approved according to the procedure of “license before license” before they can legally and formally operate; 2020 The issued "Opinions on Promoting and Regulating the Development of Social Sports Clubs" does not require sports clubs that carry out sports training for primary and secondary school students to obtain the "Private Schools License": "It involves many details such as venues, teachers, courses, etc., different local governments. Different understandings naturally lead to different implementation standards.”
4 Healthy development: both strict norms and warm guidance
On the one hand, it is the blowout market demand, and on the other hand, it is the current situation of the industry with disorderly development. Many experts have called for the youth sports education and training industry to take the road of high-level development, which must be strictly standardized and warmly guided.
"The core function of youth sports training institutions is education, not simply the transfer of sports skills. In this sense, relevant competent departments, individual sports associations, colleges and universities, training institutions, etc. must take active actions to highlight this kind of Education-oriented." Wang Xueli said.
Grasp the two key groups of retired athletes and college students, and cultivate professional coaching talents.
Chen Aiguo suggested that in order to solve the problem of professional teachers, on the one hand, we can cooperate with colleges and universities to train youth physical fitness professionals; In this process, content such as child psychology, pedagogy, and sports skills training must be included, and must not be neglected.”
Wang Xueli suggested that the key group of retired athletes should be firmly grasped: "Retired athletes can be trained in pedagogy and other related content, so that they can better understand the characteristics of children's physical and mental growth, youth teaching methods, etc., so that their professional and technical level can get a new level. platform for deployment.”
According to the laws of physical and mental development of young people, the curriculum content is scientifically planned.
A number of experts suggested that the relevant associations of a single sport should take the lead, and based on the laws of physical and mental development of young people, to formulate graded and hierarchical teaching guidelines and graded evaluation standards for the sport, so as to provide guidance for relevant institutions to scientifically plan curriculum content.
Set the entry threshold well, formulate the sports training industry entry standards and coach qualification certification system.
Zhong Bingshu, the former president of the Capital Institute of Physical Education, suggested that according to the training and examination requirements for professional qualification coaches of different sports events designated by the state, the youth sports education and training industry should formulate comprehensive certification standards for coaching levels and criteria for defining the qualifications of industry coaches. The entry threshold for coaches at different levels strictly controls the promotion threshold of different coach levels.
Clarify the boundaries of rights and responsibilities, and create a chain-type supervision and governance system for the entire life cycle of youth sports training institutions.
Wang Xueli suggested that in the application and registration stage of relevant institutions, the sports department should do a good job of pre-examination; in the registration stage, the industry and commerce/civil affairs department should do a good job of review and check; in the specific operation stage, the sports department should work with education, industry and commerce, civil affairs, development The reform commission and other departments carry out joint inspections; in the annual review stage, the industry and commerce/civil affairs departments should also make good checkpoints: "This way, the powers and responsibilities are clearly defined, and the governance is divided into sections to ensure that the supervisory bodies cooperate with each other and form a synergy."
Issue a unified school-running guide, do a good job in grading and other work, and promptly disclose the "blacklist of sports training institutions" and other relevant information to the society.
"Not long ago, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports announced the "Guidelines for the Access Review of Beijing Youth Out-of-School Sports Training Institutions", which clarified the fee supervision of sports training institutions, the qualifications of practitioners, training venues, training content, online training and other aspects. The institution provides a good guide for practitioners." Wang Xueli believes that while strict management, relevant departments should also issue relevant school-running guidelines in a timely manner to provide sports training for youth in terms of venue construction, teacher allocation, and curriculum planning. Institutions indicate development paths.
"At the same time, relevant departments should strengthen publicity and education work, rely on third-party agencies to do a good job in rating the institutions, and promptly disclose the 'blacklist of sports training institutions' and other relevant information to the society. Those with high ratings can be given priority to bid. School sports after-school services, those who are on the blacklist will be warned or even closed, which is not only a positive incentive for institutions and industries, but also provides more reference for parents and children to choose institutions." Wang Xueli said.
(Reporter Deng Hui of this newspaper)