There are many excuses: too many students, not enough sports facilities, resistant parents…
However, considering the importance of the topic, it seems that the efforts made are very little. Even if – it is always good to remember – children’s activity is not limited to the school area, and parents, as well as extracurricular clubs, have their role.
Slovenian model
Perhaps Canada could be inspired by a proven model. Turning his gaze towards a small country in Europe, Slovenia.
In this country of 2.1 million inhabitants, located between Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary, primary and secondary school students (about 220,000 children) are assessed annually based on ten tests sports ability. Goal? “To bring the entire population to a high level of physical and motor development.”
With the ricochet effect, Slovenia has been dropping a for several years now number of champions abnormally high for such a sparsely populated country. A sign that this approach is paying off. Luka Dončić (basketball), Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglić (cycling) and Janja Garnbret (climbing) are among the best in the world in their discipline.
