Led by the collective "Pour une France en forme", a group of doctors and experts formed in 2019, this study was conducted with more than 9,000 middle school students in 6th grade.
Their physical capacity was measured through the shuttle test, a 20-meter run with increasing cadence.
First lesson: the physical capacity of college students assessed by the VMA (Maximum Aerobic Speed) has deteriorated, the children tested run slower, at 10.2 km / h, than a population of the same age more than thirty years.
Another lesson, after splitting nearly 6,000 students into two groups, the college students who received specific training improved their performance by 4.6%, from 10.2 km/h to 10.6 km/h.
The other group, which only followed the standard two hours of PE per week, also progressed but less markedly, rising to 10.4 km/h.
"We have to face the facts, we are facing a societal tsunami of physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle", assured François Carré during the official presentation of this study in a primary school in Nogent-sur-Marne in the presence of the Ministers of National Education and Sports, Pap Ndiaye and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
"But this study contains a message of hope. We will have to replace sitting time with moving time. And for that, the school must help, which it does with the 30 minutes of sport offered per day in primary”, assured the cardiologist.
Since the start of the school year, the system of 30 minutes of sport per day in primary schools, in addition to the three hours of sport per week, has been generalized to the whole territory.
The Ministers of Sports and National Education also announced the launch of a group of high-level athletes, a "thirty-minute French team", which will accompany this system by going to schools.
© 2023 AFP