Physical activity ‘for every single child’

All high school students will be required to show up for in-person phys-ed classes to graduate as part of a new curriculum announced by the Manitoba government Thursday.

Phys-ed and health are compulsory classes from grades 1 to 12, but students can currently sign up for flexible or self-directed options at the end of their high school careers.

Changes to the curriculum — which apply to all grades, but Grade 11 and 12 students, in particular — will make in-person phys-ed classes mandatory across Manitoba, starting in the 2028-29 school year. The policy is called “Every Body, Every Day.”

“When we talk about health in Manitoba, this is a category where, unfortunately, we’ve been the leader in too many negative areas,” Premier Wab Kinew said at a news conference at Victor Mager School in St. Vital.

“Areas like the prevalence of juvenile diabetes, even child mortality. This curriculum is going to make Manitoba a leader across the country. We are going to have the highest standard for making sure that kids are active.”

Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said a voluntary pilot project will begin this year and continue in 2027-28 before the full rollout.

“The habits that we teach our kids today, the narratives that we tell them around what it means to be healthy are the foundations of what our province will look like 25 years from now,” she said. “The message of this curriculum is that physical activity and healthy living are for everyone, for every single child.”

Kinew said the curriculum will include lessons about nutrition and sleeping habits, and health risks associated with sedentary behaviours, screen time and sugary drinks. Soft drinks cause more damage to Manitoba than alcohol or methamphetamine, he told reporters.

The premier acknowledged some students and parents will be nervous when they learn in-person phys-ed has become mandatory.

“We are going to change gym to work for you, too,” he said. “We’ve got to include everybody, and what does that mean? If there’s a barrier to gym class, if a student doesn’t want to get changed for gym class, then let’s not make them get changed. Let them participate as it is.”

The aim is to ensure children are active in gym class.

“If you have a concern about an accommodation that your child needs, let’s work together to make that happen while still finding a way for them to be physically active during their school day,” Kinew said.

“If a young person has a mental health need, if a young person has sensory needs, if a young person has a mobility device that they use, these are all things we can plan around when we work together.”

Schmidt said the curriculum will help students find movement activities that make them happy and healthy. She cited sports, weightlifting, yoga and walking as examples.

Kinew told reporters last week that his government was preparing to announce “the biggest curriculum change in recent memory in Manitoba history.”

The framework for the phys-ed curriculum in Manitoba is more than 25 years old.

The overwhelming majority of jurisdictions in Canada do not require students to participate in phys-ed every year.

The Manitoba Commission on Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education, established in 2019, collected feedback about status-quo curriculum from teachers, parents and other members of the public.

One of its 75 recommendations called on the province to replace its requirement that all Grade 11 and 12 students complete phys-ed.

The commission called for “new and more rigorous” credits instead of the current pass-or-fail model.

Students should learn about “the concept of a healthy mind, body and lifestyle” and life skills including financial management, nutrition, entrepreneurialism, employability and parenting, the panel said.

The final report sparked outcry among phys-ed teachers when it was released in March 2021, about a year later than scheduled due to COVID-19 disruptions.

— with files from Chris Kitching

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca