Physical education advocates want Queen's University to drop and give them 20 push-ups, after the school opted to temporarily suspend its training program for gym teachers.
The Kingston, Ont.-based university announced last month that it is temporarily cutting its bachelor of physical education program, beginning in 2017. The school says applications to the program have dropped by 15 per cent over the last five years, while interest in the kinesiology program has increased by 43 per cent.
"Changes in higher education and the health industry have resulted in a trend away from physical education programs," the university said in a news release. "Additionally, many universities are no longer accepting physical education as a 'teachable' subject in teacher education programs."
But Chris Jones, the executive director of Physical Health Education Canada, says phys-ed specialists are the only teachers capable of properly motivating children, and instilling them with the necessary self-discipline to succeed.
"You can only pick that up in a pedagogical-based environment, so clearly there's a need out there," Jones told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday. "Clearly, the evidence shows that children in the school system really benefit (from specialized phys-ed teachers)."
A 2011 report by People for Education indicates that only 43 per cent of Ontario elementary schools employ a specialized phys-ed teacher. In many cases, teachers with a general bachelor's of education are picking up the slack.
But Jones insists that a general-education teacher can't be as effective as a specialized phys-ed teacher at educating children to be active. He also suggests phys-ed teachers are more capable of encouraging children to live a healthy lifestyl.
"Kids aren't perhaps getting the quality physical education that they should be getting, and that's resulting in more sedentarism, more screen addiction – all the kinds of problems we associate with kids just not being active for that 25-30 minutes a day that they should be," he said.
"We see that Queen's is perhaps pursuing more of an applied science approach with a focus on exercise, physiology and biomechanics," he added.
Current students in the BPHE at Queen's will be allowed to complete their studies, but no new students will be accepted to the program for September of 2017.
The school says it will be reviewing and holding consultations on the program.
Manitoba is the only province in Canada that requires physical education from Kindergarten to Grade 12. B.C. and Ontario have also reaffirmed their support for physical education with renewed initiatives to promote it.
