Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 9th issue: self-enrollment test sports, why colleges and universities “avoid the heavy”
Xinhua News Agency reporter Gao Peng
90 colleges and universities with independent enrollment qualification have recently announced the enrollment guide. Compared with previous years, all colleges and universities have added sports subject tests in the school entrance examination according to the requirements of the Ministry of Education. However, the reporter found that the contents of sports tests in each school are quite different, including height, weight, lung capacity, standing long jump, more relaxed projects such as sitting position and body flexion were frequently selected, while only a few schools dared to pay attention to the difficult 800-meter/1000-meter race. Not only that, the use of the physical test results of each proofreading is also different. Except that Tsinghua University and Xiamen University adopt the method of reducing extra points for the excellent physical test, some colleges and universities clearly stated that they “rejected by one vote” for students who did not meet the physical test, but most schools only vaguely expressed that the physical test results were taken as the admission reference.
The independent enrollment and testing of physical education in colleges and universities is an important means to encourage students to actively carry out physical exercises and promote the healthy development of students’ physical fitness. However, in practice, due to various considerations, some colleges and universities “avoid the heavy” in sports tests, which reduced the good original intention of the education authorities.
Many colleges and universities “avoid the heavy” sports test weakened to physical examination
at the end of last year, the Ministry of Education issued the “notice on doing well the independent enrollment work of colleges and universities in 2019”, for the first time, it is clearly required that all self-enrollment colleges and universities should add physical education subject tests in the college entrance examination. The test items are determined independently by colleges and universities according to the teaching practice of middle schools. The test results are used as an important reference for admission.
Starting from the middle of March, colleges and universities with independent enrollment qualifications have successively published enrollment brochures. Xinhua news agency reporters checked one by one and found that most colleges and universities were in height and body mass index, vital capacity, standing long jump, sitting forward flexion, 50-meter or 100-meter running, pull-up (male), sit-ups (female), one to three items were selected from the 800-meter (female)/1000-meter race (male) for testing. Only a few schools such as Tsinghua University, Peking University and Beijing Normal University had five test subjects.
“Almost no two colleges and universities (physical testing programs) are exactly the same, which can be described as full of personality.” Nanjing university of science and technology dynamic business research center director wang ping professor said that due to the sports has not been included in the college entrance examination, no exam outline, most of the physical education in colleges and universities test content, the scoring standard refers to the latest National Student Physical Health Standard (revised in 2014). This standard has 8 physical test indexes for high school students, including height, weight, vital capacity, 50-meter running, sitting forward flexion, standing long jump, pull-ups/sit-ups, endurance running (800 m/1000 m).
According to the reporter’s statistics, among the more than 80 colleges and universities that have published their own enrollment guidelines, one or more of the most Tests are height, weight, vital capacity, standing long jump and sitting body forward bending, the test items include only about one third of the 50-meter or 100-meter runs. The proportion of colleges and universities that test pull-ups and sit-ups is lower, and the test endurance runs are the least. Only Wuhan University, shandong University has less than 10 colleges and universities, and most colleges and universities have given up this recognized most difficult subject.
“Don’t take sports tests as physical examination,” Wang Zongping, who has been engaged in sports teaching research for nearly 30 years, said that the so-called sports subject tests should at least refer to running, jumping, investment and other contents or items such as foot basket row, table tennis and badminton. Tests such as height and body mass index and vital capacity are closer to physical examination items, which strictly cannot be counted as physical examination. No wonder some netizens quipped that some colleges and universities self-enrollment sports test “no effort, no sweat”, too easy.
The reporter also noticed that most schools only said that the results of physical tests would be an important reference for the identification of independent enrollment qualifications, but there was no specific explanation on how important it was. Only less than 1/4 of colleges and universities have clearly stated that those who fail to meet the standards in sports tests cannot obtain the qualification of independent enrollment. In addition, some schools also adopt the reward policy of giving extra points to those with excellent physical tests.
“Fear of accidents” in colleges and universities exposed the weak reality of middle school sports
in Wang Zongping’s view, many colleges and universities independently recruit sports tests to avoid difficult and easy tests, the main reason is “fear of accidents”.
There have been media reports that in 2013, Nanjing Normal University, as the only one in Jiangsu province to test Sports in self-enrollment, required candidates to take the grip strength, height, weight, lung capacity, standing long jump test for the first time, male and female students also tested 1000 meters and 800 meters respectively. As a result, on the day of the test, the long-distance running examinees fell down a large area. Some left halfway, some vomited on the spot, and some collapsed on the ground. Under various pressures, Nanjing Normal University later canceled the self-enrollment physical fitness test.
As the first institution in China to increase physical fitness tests in self-enrollment, Tsinghua University’s self-enrollment physical testing work has lasted for 8 years since 2011. Professor Liu Bo, director of physical education department of Tsinghua University, said that it is also a test of aerobic endurance. Tsinghua has always adopted the step exercise test instead of long-distance running, firstly, the step exercise test was one of the endurance test options of National Student Physical Health Standard (revised in 2007) at that time, and it was also for the consideration of ease of operation and safety.
“Compared with long-distance running, the exercise load of step motion test is smaller and the safety is higher.” Liu Bo said that through 3 minutes of Up and Down Step exercise, testing the rising level of heart rate and recovery speed after exercise can effectively reflect people’s aerobic endurance exercise level. Long-term systematic physical exercise, especially running, ball games, swimming and other sports, can improve the scores of Step exercise tests.
In addition to safety factors, Liu Bo believes that the limitation of testing site and time is also one reason why many colleges and universities give up testing long-distance running. He said that the self-enrollment interview is usually only half a day or a day. Some colleges and universities have small sports venues, which makes it difficult for hundreds of candidates to test them all. If the weather is bad, outdoor long-distance running cannot be carried out.
In spite of this, Wang Zongping believes that the self-enrollment sports tests of colleges and universities have “avoided the heavy”, which shows that there is no bottom in the examinees’s physical condition and they are distrusted and uneasy about high school sports.
Some insiders pointed out that because physical education was not included in the college entrance examination, physical education in senior high school, especially in grade 3, was useless, and the physical health of students after the college entrance examination was worrying. Judging from the physical test of Tsinghua’s independent enrollment in the past 8 years, the physical condition of the examinees participating in the test is generally not optimistic. According to Liu Bo, in 2011, among the nearly 700 students who took part in the self-enrollment sports test of Tsinghua University, the students with excellent scores (above 90 points) were zero and failed (below 60 points). The number of candidates accounted.
Liu Bo said that although the results of physical tests in the past two years show that the physical quality of examinees has improved, and more and more examinees and parents are aware of the importance of physical tests, this does not mean that the overall physical fitness of high school students has improved significantly.
Promote scientific physical fitness testing to avoid the failure of the original intention of the policy
as early as 12 years ago, the opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Strengthening Youth Sports and enhancing youth physical fitness pointed out that “youth endurance, strength, speed and other physical indicators continue to decline. However, due to the lack of “positive baton”, the problem of weak physical quality of students has not been solved well.
Wang Zongping said that the Ministry of Education requires independent enrollment of colleges and universities to test physical education, hoping that these 985 and 211 colleges and universities will play a leading role in demonstration and make the majority of parents and examinees realize that, physical exercise is as important as cultural learning, thus triggering a positive chain reaction in which primary and secondary schools attach importance to physical education. However, no matter from the point of view of the importance of test subjects or test results, physical tests in colleges and universities “have less real life and more people go through the motions”, which undoubtedly discounts the good original intention of education authorities.
Wang Zongping believes that for the self-enrollment college sports test, which items should be tested, what standards should be referred to, and how much weight the results of the physical test account for in the enrollment assessment, etc, the education sector should study and formulate a relatively fine-grained scientific guidance, so as to avoid sports test becomes a mere formality, and there are great differences, avoid good policy become centerpiece.
“It takes a period of exploration to promote the scientization of physical education in school examinations,” Liu Bo said, this year is the first year that the Ministry of Education requires independent enrollment of colleges and universities to test physical education. Most colleges and universities have no experience, therefore, it is completely understandable to be very cautious when choosing the content, standard and weight of physical examination. After all, National Student Physical Health Standard (revised in 2014) is a ready-made standardized test with unified evaluation indicators and evaluation standards. It is easy to operate and easy to organize, therefore, most colleges and universities have chosen this standard as reference for physical testing.
Liu Bo also agreed with the introduction of a guiding opinion on sports tests in the future, but he stressed that “one size fits all” should not be implemented, requiring all school physical tests to be completely unified, because since it is self-enrollment, therefore, colleges and universities should be given certain autonomy.
In fact, no matter how to adjust the test subjects, the ultimate purpose of physical fitness test is to guide more students to join in sports and form the habit of lifelong exercise. Wang Zongping and Liu Bojun said that reversing the trend of students’ physical decline is not an overnight thing, nor can it be achieved by one school, which needs the joint efforts of the whole society.