Healthy Nation - Priority of State Policy of Republic of Belarus

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ˑ: 

A.V. Grigorov, professor, Honored trainer of the Belarus SSR, Honored worker of physical culture and sport of the Republic of Belarus
Belarus state agrarian technical university, Minsk, Belarus

Key words: program, physical culture, sport, tourism, development, financing, results.

The state model of management of physical education and sport has been established in the Republic of Belarus. The current system of physical education and sport defines the functions regarding solving the problems of mass sport, including university one, respectively reserved for the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, public formations.

The Ministry of Education via the institution "National Center for Physical Education and Sport for pupils and students" (hereinafter RCPhES), which mediates the interaction with governmental organizations, ministries, departments and public organizations, coordinates and performs methodological guidance of physical education of students.

For the legal functioning of RCPhES in the educational system and similar regional structures amendments were made in the new draft law of the Republic of Belarus "On Physical Culture and Sport", they establish the status of stipulated institutions as an organization of physical culture and sport, implementing the interagency coordination, management, methodical support of the system of physical education and sport in educational institutions, including secondary and higher education.

Currently, there are 55 institutions of higher education (IHE), 45 of which are subordinate to 15 ministries and other government agencies, 10 universities fall on the other forms of property. 51 IHE out of 55 have departments of physical education and sport.

In accordance with paragraph 6 Article 19 of the law "On Physical Culture and Sports" physical education is mandatory for IHE students.

Based on IHE Charters and taking into account the interests of students, the means of physical education, methods of conducting classes are determined. On the basis of standard curricula and programs the extracurricular cultural-recreational and mass sports activities are conducted in accordance with intra-university calendar plans of health and fitness events, sport competitions, on the basis of Republic’s official schedule of sports events, annually held by the Ministry of Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Education.

The organization and conduct of classes, fitness and sports events are regulated by the department of physical education and sport.

Physical education classes are conducted according to the curricula for each academic department, individual curricula, which are being developed by methodical committees of departments of physical education and sport for non-core specialities on the basis of the standard curriculum approved by the heads of IHE. The curricula reflect the specifics of IHE and specialities of the leading universities in the country, according to the instructions of the Council of Ministers from 04.10.2011 №05/59 and from 27.10.2011 № 05/203-336 and the professional experience of the faculty of the existing material and sports facilities.

Terms and organization of physical education process must meet the requirements of SanPiN № 12-19-2006 «Hygienic requirements for construction and operation of sports facilities", as well as the facilities must be certified in accordance with the classification of fitness and sports facilities of the Republic of Belarus.

Recently the universities’ sport basis has been significantly strengthened. Economic University’s sports block has been commissioned, as well as a stadium, gyms at National Technical University, a sports complex at Technological University, a stadium with artificial football field at BSU, a stadium at Law College of BSU. Today Polessky University has sports facilities, which comply with international standards and are used for official sports competitions. During the universities preparation for the current academic year 33 sports facilities have been refurbished, 2 new shooting galleries have been put into operation.

At the same time, only 12 universities out of 54 have swimming pools, 20 - have non-standard stadiums, 19 – do not have any planar sports grounds.

The proposal for launching departmental perspective plans to modernize physical education and sports facilities up to 2020 with the definition of the sport profile was initiated by the Ministry of Education in order to systemize the measures for the development of university sport. The order from the Government is needed as 15 ministries and departments are involved.

So far, the initiative of the Ministry of Education in the field of development of regional programs "Swimming Pool" and "School stadium" found no support.

Given the existence and condition of the material and sports facilities, there exist certain difficulties in ensuring the full current level of physical education of students and sports classes.

Personnel at all times and in all industries determine the development strategy. The issue of personnel policy is crucial to the development strategy of physical education and sport in the system of higher education institutions.

As a result of IHE systematic work we have about 2500 professionals teaching the discipline "Physical Education", more than 90% of whom are specialists in physical education, including 87% with higher education.

The scientific potential of the faculty of physical education departments includes 20 professors, 105 associate professors, 17 doctors of science and 80 PhD’s.

Physical education and sports training in the country is being implemented by 12 universities, headed by Belarusian State University of Physical Culture. In total 2304 specialists of physical education have graduated from the country’s universities in 2011, 2593 - in 2012.

Last year the new speciality "Maintenance and operation of sports facilities", based on the BITU sports-technical faculty, was launched, 36 students are studying it.

The new speciality "Sports Law" (Ministry of Education decree from 17 May 2010 № 50) was introduced for retraining based on higher education. The license to implement this activity was provided by BSUPhC, that organized retraining for 27 students of the speciality "Lawyer with knowledge of sports law” since November 2011.

Belarus is implementing projects on student exchange between domestic and foreign universities. According to one of the most famous programs 50 Belarusian students are studying in Western countries (England, Spain, Belgium, Germany) and the same number of students from these countries are undergoing practical training in Belarus. In the future, the same exchange of teachers would be useful. For example, mandatory training course for teachers of physical education departments in other universities.

In order to bring together the efforts of Belarusian IHE, commercial and non-profit organizations, including NGOs, involved in the development of mass university sport and training of highly skilled athletes, who are able to enter the first national teams of the country, the Belarusian Collegiate Athletic Association was created.

The main objective of this association is active involvement of all interested in the development of common objectives and programs of university sport development, as well as providing organizational and practical assistance (including financial) to Departments of Physical Education at IHE and sports clubs in all areas of their multifaceted activities.

In the country’s 32 IHE 697 branches of sports training are operating (2010 - 425), where more than 11 thousand students work on their sports skills (2010 - 7225). 39 IHE have sports clubs as structural units for the organization and conducting of health and fitness and mass sport activities of students and teachers.

The most popular and mass sports activities include competition within university among learning groups, courses, hostels, faculties, which annually attracts more than 122 thousand full-time students, or about 67% of their total number. There are more than 600 sports sections in IHE, attended by more than 15,000 students.

The Republican Universiade is held annually, athletes compete in 29 sports, 18 of which are Olympic sports, about 8,000 student-athletes from 49 universities are competing in the final.

In accordance with Articles 212, 217 of the Education Code of the Republic of Belarus for the successful combination of studies and targeted training for the Olympic Games and other sports competitions student-athletes have the right to study according to individual programs and to get material assistance from the remaining excess of IHE income over expenditure.

Top student-athletes participate as national team players in the Olympic Games, the World and European Championships, World Summer and Winter Universiade, organized by the International University Sports Federation (FTSU), the European University Sports Association (EUSA).

Thus, in the XXX Summer Olympics 75 student-athletes participated (44.6% of the total number of participants from the Belarusian delegation) in 14 sports, where they got 9 medals (47.3% of the total number of medals won by athletes of the country) - 1 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze medals.

The most successful performance in the history of participation was the performance of student-athletes in the competition of the XXVII World Summer Universiade in 2013.

In the total rating the Republic of Belarus was on the 5th place among 160 countries participating with the record result for themselves of 40 medals (13 gold, 13 silver, 14 bronze medals), leaving behind such countries as Ukraine, USA, Germany, Italy, Canada, United Kingdom, Austria and many others.

Thus, the stable, dynamically developing and efficient system of university sports has been developed in the educational institutions of the Republic of Belarus.

At the same time, the analysis of the state of physical education and sport in IHE indicates the presence of unused reserves.

In order to improve the efficiency of work it is advisable to ensure functioning  of sports training departments through development and approval of IHE curricula, manuals and guidelines taking into account the specificity of sports and advanced technology in elite sport.

It is important to set as a criterion for higher education institutions the right to conduct educational activities, the obligatory presence of sports facilities for the organization of physical education of students, as well as:

- to give the Heads of State IHE the right to provide for student-champions (medalists) of Olympic Games, the European or World, world and republican Universiade champions discounts on tuition or transfer them from paid education program to state-subsidized education, and for applicants-members of national sports teams of the Republic - the right to non-competitive admission in IHE for distance and evening educational program (from budget resources);

- to recommend the introduction to the IHE schedule of the rates of coaches for the organization of the training process and training of student-athletes to compete in national and international sports forums;

- to intensify the IHE-based republican and international theoretical-practical conferences on university sport, and disseminate best practices of development of university sport.

It is important to note that many of the Olympic Movement leading countries (China, United Kingdom, Canada, France, USA, etc.) in order to create Olympic reserve centers on the IHE basis are actively using such factors as available material and sports facilities, qualified personnel, social conditions, as well as access to education, scientific support of the training process.

Implementation of the quoted management innovation in the Republic of Belarus will help to apply the principle of effective management on the basis of overall management of the quality of training sports reserves and will be an important phase on the way to complete transition from extensive (quantitative) to intensive (qualitative) development of university sport.

References

  1. The main ways of implementing the state policy of the Republic of Belarus in the sphere of physical culture, sport and tourism / A.V. Grigorov // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. – № 3. – P. 33-35. (In Russian)

Corresponding author: grigorov.1948@mail.ru