Govt Dismisses Lawmakers' Call For More PE In Schools

The Education Bureau has rejected calls by lawmakers for schools to set aside more time for physical education lessons.

At a home affairs panel meeting on Friday, councillors said more time spent on PE could help improve sport development in Hong Kong.

The DAB's Vincent Cheng said having just two classes a week is not enough and doesn't meet either World Health Organisation recommendations on exercise, or the 30 minutes a day advocated by the government.

But a principal education officer, Ashley Leung, told lawmakers that increasing PE lesson time was not the right focus for promoting sport.

Leung said more lessons could encourage schools to cut their sports programmes, or to extend total class hours which might in turn leave children with less time to exercise.

"The present arrangement was decided together with the schools, it was a professional decision. Before there is a widespread consensus, increasing the number of lessons for PE would not be good," he said.