"School leagues should be a method of molding the morality and personalities of the participants and play a part in boosting the development of the country's basketball talent to ensure the sport's long-term and sustainable development," he said.

The Ministry of Education's Students Athletic Association has signed an agreement with the US National Collegiate Athletic Association. It aims to promote the development of school basketball leagues in China throughout the education system via a number of exchange programs between the two countries, according to Yang.

Raising awareness

In an effort to increase the attention paid to physical education, the Ministry of Education issued a document in October that proposed the formation of a mechanism for sustainable development and a scientific evaluation system for school sports by the end of 2015. It also urged local sports authorities and schools to conduct annual tests to monitor students' physical well-being.

That has resulted in some establishments paying greater attention to children's overall fitness levels, rather than mere academic performance.

In addition to students undertaking a daily hour of outdoor exercise, Shanghai Jincai High School boasts first-class facilities and Li Guojun, a retired national volleyball player, is now head coach of the school's volleyball club. The school requires students to pick at least one sport and join a club to participate regularly throughout their lives.

"The reason for the decline in student fitness levels is simply that they lack exercise, and so we need to encourage an interest in sports," said Li. "Providing a wider range of choices than just basic running would trigger greater participation and eventually help students to become fitter."

Meanwhile, 13 monitoring centers will be set up in Shanghai this year to keep a close eye on students' physical fitness, according to Yin Jie, vice-director of the Shanghai Education Committee.

Health beats exam results

Ye Qing, the mother of a grade-two student at Nanjing Youfu West Street Primary School, believes that a healthy body is more important than good exam results.

Her son, Zhang Xinye, practices table tennis for 45 minutes every afternoon at his school, with professional guidance provided by a local school that specializes in sports studies.

"We don't care how many full marks he achieves in the exams, we care if his body grows healthily, as it is supposed to," said Ye. "I've seen a lot of kids hampered by health problems such as obesity and myopia at a young age. We don't want our only child to be a fat little boy.

"Making sure he has enough time to play whatever sports he enjoys is more important at his age," she said.

Contact the writers at [email protected] and [email protected]

Sun Xiaochen and Gao Qihui contributed to this story.