Physical education status in european schools: curriculum, extension of educational offer and planning

The new Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030 of the WHO promotes sporting and physicalactivity as a leading factor for mental health, quality of life and wellness. The document highlights thebeneficial effects of regular physical activity and the need to achieve a paradigm shift in supporting andevaluating people regularly, according to the ability and across the life course. A recent systematic reviewconfirms that school health programs promoting active lifestyles among children and adolescents maycontribute to the improvement of health-related quality of life. The educational environment plays a key role:physical education is part of all central curriculum frameworks in the EU, and is compulsory in primary andsecondary education. The time allocated to physical education in some member states of the EU isinsufficient to cover the recommendations of the WHO, so as to assume a marginal role in School Curriculum.This study aims to outline the current state of physical education in European school systems by drawing acomparative framework on topics related to the issue: national and European strategies, large-scale projects,teacher education, status of physical education in national curricula and in extracurricular activity, pupilsevaluation and ongoing reform projects. We performed a meta-analysis study analysing national documentsof the various member states, international reports of European organization and some international reviews.The results of the study underline strengths and weaknesses of the various national situations to identify themain critical problems and to highlight the potential of sustainable initiatives already validated