Most RI kids not healthy

Most RI kids not healthy

JAKARTA (JP): Only 1.8 percent of Indonesia's 29 million elementary school children, between the ages of six and nine years, are physically healthy, a recent survey shows.

The figure slightly rose to 6.8 percent among children of between nine and 12 years old.

Sri Sudono Sumarto, a senior official of the Ministry of Education and Culture, who presented the findings, said on Thursday that lack of sports facilities in elementary schools and lack of public concern for sports activities for school children were behind the health problem.

Sri Sudono Sumarto, a senior official of the Ministry of Education and Culture, who presented the findings, on Thursday highlighted lack of sports facilities in elementary schools and lack of public concern for sports activities for school children as the main cause of the health problem.

The official failed to elaborate the indicators used to measure the children's health standards.

Sudono said that in a bid to improve the physical fitness of children, his ministry will promote a gymnastic exercise package throughout the country's 125,000 elementary schools.

A well-known gymnastic instructor, Maya Tamara, helped the ministry develop the exercises suitable for the elementary-level school children.

A ministerial decree has been issued to justify the nation- wide program, Sudono said. The decree also suggests every elementary school build adequate sports facilities.

The ministry has formerly launched three packages of morning exercises, called the A, B and C Series, but Sudono said they fall short of characteristic moves for the children.

Djauzak Achmad, the ministry's director in charge of elementary-level education, said that sports should be viewed as a need, not as a symbol of prestige, and should be promoted among families.

He said that the recent findings answered the question why Indonesians carried poor records in world-level sports. (arf)