1st Physical Education Almanac

Worldwide, most children and adolescents continue not to meet the physical activity guidelines that benefit their health. There is no single solution, but it is difficult to imagine solving this problem without considering schools, particularly the subject of physical education. However, physical education faces numerous challenges in many countries, including persistent gaps between physical education policies and actual implementation, reduced status of the physical education subject, inadequate surveillance systems, and limited research. To address the urgent need for global physical education and school-based physical activity monitoring, as well as the gaps in policy, surveillance systems, and research, GoPE! was launched in 2023. GoPE! builds on the GoPA!, which was founded in 2012 and has become a well-established system for monitoring country-level progress in physical activity surveillance, research, and policy. Following a decade of effective monitoring and evaluation of the national physical activity levels among adults globally, GoPA! recognized the critical need to establish a similarly high-quality global surveillance system focused on physical education, schoolbased physical activity, and youth populations.

GoPE! is, therefore, a global organization comprising physical education and physical activity researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, producing and analyzing rigorous, reliable, high-quality, and current data, information, and knowledge on the topic of quality physical education and physical activity. GoPE!’s mission is to monitor and promote quality physical education and physical activity in schools worldwide. Similar to GoPA!, some distinctive products of GoPE! are the Country Cards—a one-page infographic summary of a country’s key indicators and the Physical Education Almanac, which you are about to read. The use of the present Almanac and the participation of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in GoPE!’s and GoPA!’s initiatives are essential and greatly appreciated. Join us and give your essential contribution to building more active, equitable, and healthy societies.