Number of Russians involved in GTO complex will have raised to 80 million by 2024
Deputy Director General of the Directorate for Sports and Social Projects Alexander Karpov spoke at a science conference "Prior Ways of Physical Culture and Sport Development" that was held within "The Nation’s Health as the Foundation for a Flourishing Russia" Forum on 1 June 2018.
Director of the Physical Culture and Grassroots Sports Development Department of the Ministry of Sport, Vladimir Malits, Head of Physical Education and Healthy Lifestyle Development of Department of State Policy in Children Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Aleksandr Minaev, Deputy Director General of the Federal Science Centre of Physical Culture and Sport Professor, Boris Shustrin, representatives of regional ministries of sport, sport universities, non-commercial organizations, children's sport development fund, physical culture teachers of Moscow schools, etc. took part in the conference.
Alexander Karpov spoke on new directions in development of the GTO complex that had been implemented in 2014-2017. These directions answer to a strategic plan of Russian President Vladimir Putin that had been approved in the May Decree. Among other objectives, the plan features increasing the country's population and its longevity, and raising the number of people systematically practicing sport or engaged in physical activities to 55% of the whole Russian population.
"We are about to make a real breakthrough in the next 6 years and the GTO complex will be our main leverage to fulfill the task. This will be possible only if we join our forces and all municipal, regional, federal authorities together with social institutions, labour offices, trade unions, healthcare organizations and education departments will work together." he admitted.
If we understand the Decree literally, more than 80 million people will be engaged in the GTO complex in 6 years. The test centres now operating across the whole country will need to reinforce their staff to successfully test no less than 40 million people in this period, and the Ministry of Sport of Russia will need to produce and distribute more than 20 million excellence pins of gold, silver, and bronze value.
"I remind you that GTO is the first step towards health, personal growth, well being and giving up bad habits. In a nutshell, the GTO complex is a foundation of a nation's health," noted Alexander Karpov in the end of his speech.