Childhood Obesity (11) - Update the curricula

The current curriculum was written in 1998. It’s time to update the curriculum so that it can reflect more closely to the current thoughts on and approaches of combating the prevalence of childhood obesity.

One obvious aspect in the curriculum to be updated is: The current stipulation by the Ministry of Education in the Elementary Curriculum that a minimum of 20 minutes each day is far from the recommended time of at least 60 minutes each day by the World Health Organization. This is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, which should also place a closer monitoring on the implementation details, such as “each day” really is “each day”, not “each day on the average.”

The Ministry of Education should also update the curriculum for high school to make the subjects of “Physical Education” and “Healthy Living” mandatory throughout all grades in high school. The current curriculum allows students to drop out of “Health and Physical Education” starting grade 10. It is unacceptable because we need to convey the message to our children that physically active and eating healthy are life-long commitments.