IN-line skating, t’ai chi and breakdancing instead of football, hockey and netball should stop teenagers dropping out of PE lessons, delegates heard.
Experiments with “fashionable sports” in some German schools had helped to keep teenagers engaged in physical activities.
Circus skills, self-defence classes and rock-and-roll dancing have also proved popular with pupils in Saarland in western Germany, according to its education minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
She said: “Kids aged 13 to 14 usually stop doing exercise and drop out of PE. But we have found that these kinds of activity do keep their interest alive.
“There have been surveys showing that around the age of 13 to 14 the interests of girls and boys diverge and girls like to be with other girls when they exercise, so we have to offer different activities for girls and boys.”
