RIYADH, 1 December 2006 — With a growing trend of obesity among Saudi youths, teachers here have expressed concerns over the lack of physical education (PE) classes that are carried out in schools across Saudi Arabia.

Some teachers blame the Education Ministry for not establishing well-equipped playgrounds in the Kingdom’s schools, while others complain that a short PE lesson once a week is inadequate for pupils.

PE is a crucial subject that not only benefits students but also helps them gain confidence. Many teachers say that if children are groomed by qualified instructors and have well-equipped playgrounds, the Kingdom could potentially see the emergence of talented youngsters. Arab News spoke to a number of people who feel strongly about the issue.

PE teacher, Salih Al-Amri, works at an elementary school. Al-Amri said that he is unable to fully train pupils because the school lacks space and is housed in a rented premises.

“I cannot train 30 students or teach them anything in this small area. We haven’t also had much equipment for over 10 years now, so we only buy necessary equipment like footballs,” he said.

Another PE teacher, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that at his school there used to be a rather large playground, which was used by the Education Ministry to build a primary school.

“Now we are left with only a basketball court, which is made from concrete and is dangerous for students to play on. We only give the kids 45 minutes, which are totally insufficient,” he added.

Salman Ali, a secondary school student, feels pupils benefit very little from PE lessons. “As students we do not benefit from PE lessons. We have to dress up, divide ourselves into groups, play and then return to class within 45 minutes. This is far too short. We only learn at school how to play soccer and volleyball. We haven’t been introduced to any other types of sports,” he said.

“We only get to hear about other sports from the television. We wish we could learn about other types of games so we can at least enjoy and understand them when watching them. If you ask students about basketball, the rules of the game they won’t be able to tell you anything about it. They only know about soccer and volleyball,” he said.

Khalid, a school headmaster told Arab News that some PE teachers are just not doing their jobs in spite of the limited facilities that they have. “Many of these teachers prefer to relax and make no effort. They make students do some exercises in the morning and then send them to other classes.”

He added that the school he works for has not received any financial help from the Education Ministry for 13 years now. “We try to use some money from the budget we receive to buy and repair outdated equipment,” he said, adding that PE lessons are just excuses for pupils to play soccer.

Salman Al-Shareeda, a supervisor, suggested that PE lessons must consist of a detailed program that provides students with needed information related to their health and diet, along with sufficient exercise.

“These classes must make students aware of the dangers of obesity especially since many students are suffering from obesity - something that make them shy to interact with their classmates, and therefore psychologically problematic,” he said.

Hasan Al-Ghamdi a psychology teacher said that some students demand that these lessons be canceled saying they are useless.

“This is totally wrong. These classes teach students how to cooperate within a group, how to control themselves and how to avoid being angry or selfish. Students must learn these ethics and be able to practice them in their everyday life,” he said, adding, “If we inculcate these ethics in our youths then we would help remove the silly behavior that takes place in professional games.”

Another problem that PE teachers at boys’ schools face is that teachers of other subjects tend to take the time assigned for PE lessons saying they need to complete their annual syllabus.