Canadian children get Fs in phys-ed

A new evaluation of children's fitness gives Canada a failing grade, the head of a national charity devoted to boosting healthy living said Thursday.

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The report by Active Healthy Kids Canada gave Canada a D average on its report card and found that less than half of the country's children are active enough for good health.

"When it comes to keeping kids physically active, Canada is dropping the ball," said Dr. Mark Tremblay, chairman of Active Healthy Kids Canada.

It's not the first study of youth activity, but its look at how family, school, and government policies impact on children's fitness is novel, said Tremblay, who is professor of exercise physiology and pediatric exercise science at the University of Saskatchewan.

• FROM MAY 5, 2005: How parents, teachers can help counter child obesity

The report also gave Canada two Fs, one for lack of daily physical education due to just 14 per cent of elementary schools and four per cent of high schools offering daily phys-ed classes in 2000.

The second F came from childhood obesity rates, which ballooned from two per cent in 1981 to 10 per cent in 2001.

Tremblay said it wasn't intense sport training that was lacking, but just facets of everyday life that need to be restored or expanded.

"It is unorganized sport pickup games in the neighbourhood, unstructured activity, games like tag, an activity that is part of day-to-day living, such as walking to school or to the store, or doing chores around the house that have been shown to have a health benefit and a protective effect on overweight and obesity prevalence among children and youth," he said.