The Olympic movement is being woven throughout different educational programs by providing approximately 400 million young people in more than 400,000 schools across the country with Olympic education in the run-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
The program, initiated by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee in 2005, in partnership with the country's Education Ministry and the National Olympic Committee, comprises several distinct components. One integrates Olympic education into the academic curriculum of schools in China. During dedicated training sessions, the teachers are educated on the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect, and shown how to incorporate Olympism into the classroom setting.
In addition, a series of textbooks has been created, introducing students to the history of the Olympic Games, the various Olympic sports and the rules of play, Olympic symbols and the role of the Olympic Movement as a contributor to international peace and friendship. Photography, painting, poetry, calligraphy and foreign-language speech contests are further means used to promote Olympism in Chinese schools.
Since the launch of the program, 556 elementary and secondary schools have been officially recognized as "Olympic Education Model Schools". During his visit to Beijing in August 2007, IOC President Jacques Rogge had the opportunity to visit the Beijing No. 4 High School, an Olympic Education Model School which is also linked to the Heart-to-Heart program.
"The sports arena is like a classroom," Jacques Rogge told the pupils and the teachers. "There we learn to live together, in society; there we learn solidarity and friendship; there we learn respect for others: whether one is a boy or girl, short or tall, young or old, from Asia, Africa, Europe, America or Oceania. Sport is all these things. And it is also health."
