PhD, Associate Professor A.A. Peshkov¹
PhD, Associate Professor I.M. Salakhov¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.A. Pasishnikov^1
1Surgut State University, Surgut

Keywords: students, tourist hike, RPCSC "Ready for labour and defence" (GTO) Complex standards

Background. Presently the national government takes persistent efforts to reinstate, in a phased manner, the Russian Physical Culture and Sports “Ready for Labour and Defence” (GTO) Complex tests including, among other tests, tourist events designed to test a variety of tourist qualities and skills in Class III to IX age groups [2]. As provided by the valid practical recommendations, the relevant GTO Complex tests may be passed in cross-country hiking, skiing, cycling and water sport events [1], conditional on the relevant test missions being fulfilled with the qualifiers’ skills being rated in a variety of tests including, for example, tenting, knots making, bonfire setting, natural/ manmade barriers crossing, orienteering (using a compass and topographical map) and other tests. It should be noted, however, that lately the general education system has failed to give enough attention to the tourist activity on the whole and school camping trips in particular. This situation in the school system gives grounds to assume that the modern school graduates are not knowledgeable and skilful enough in the tourist domain and, hence, poorly fit for the academic tourist skills tests.

Objective of the study was to offer a special academic tourist skills training program to make the students fit for the relevant GTO tests.

Methods and structure of the study. The study was performed at the Physical Education Department of Surgut State University in the academic year of 2015-16. Subject to the questionnaire survey under the study were the first-to-fourth-year students (99 people including 47 men and 52 women) majoring in non-sporting disciplines of the bachelor training course.

Study results and discussion. Given on Figure 1 are the responses to the question Do you have a practical tourist experience?

Figure 1. Responses to the question Do you have a practical tourist experience? (%)

Having analysed the survey data, we found most of the subjects reportedly having no practical tourist experience. One could expect that the necessary skills and experience could have been acquired in the students’ tourist festivals. However, despite the academic situation being somewhat better than the school one, the respondents who reported having practical experience of school tourist festivals varied at less than 50% - both for men and women (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Responses to the question Have you competed in school tourist festivals? (%)

The above data confirm our assumption on the students’ fitness for the relevant GTO tests being low, and this assumption is verified by the responses (see Figure 3), with more than 50% of the men and 80% of the women reporting the need for a special training for the tourist events and believing that it is the university authorities that should provide the training service.

Figure 3. Responses to the question Do you need a special training for tourist events? (%)

It should be noted that the questionnaire survey form offered a few questions to rate the most challenging tourist skills. Dominating among the most challenging skills were the following: knots making (reportedly difficult for 55.3% and 55.8% of the women and men surveyed); tenting (reportedly difficult for 42.3% of the women); first medical aid (reportedly difficult for 40.4% of the men). The least challenging was the bonfire setting test (8% difficult).

Therefore, we have reasons to believe that, on the one hand, many students are willing to join the academic tourist events with their skills being tested by the GTO tests and, on the other hand, above 80% of the respondents report having no practical experience in tourist events nor elementary tourist knowledge and skills. Therefore, there is a clear need for a special academic training to make the students fit for the relevant GTO tests. We believe that the problem may be solved by a special short-term tourist training program that may be implemented in the first-year academic curriculum.

A guiding thematic plan for the program is to include at least the following themes: safety provisions; tourist’s hygienic standards; tourist equipment; tourist life management; camp setting; tourist nutrition; hiking process management and barrier crossing procedure; orienteering using a compass and a topographical map; first-aid kit and first medical aid. The program is to be implemented by lectures and practical sessions with the tourist skills and the relevant competences being tested upon completion of the 18-hour course.

Conclusion. The questionnaire survey data showed that many students are willing to join the academic tourist events albeit most of the respondents report having no practical experience in tourism nor elementary tourist knowledge and skills; and they reported being in need of a special academic training to make them fit for the GTO tests. We believe that the problem may be solved by a special short-term tourist skills training program that may be implemented in the first-year academic physical education curriculum to build adequate competences in the students to make them fit for the relevant GTO Complex tests.

References

1. Sidorenko A.S. Znachenie turizma kak odnogo iz normativov VI stupeni kompleksa GTO [The role of tourism as one of stage VI GTO complex standards]. Uchenye zapiski un-ta im. P.F. Lesgafta, 2015, no. 1 (119), pp. 148-151. 
2. http://www.gto.ru/norms

Corresponding author: peshkova_ffk@mail.ru

Abstract

The national general education organizations have lately failed to pay enough attention to tourism, especially to the participation of schoolchildren in multi-day hikes. In this regard, it can be assumed that the school graduates do not have a proper level of knowledge in the field of tourism to successfully pass the tourist skills testing at the university.

Owing to the topicality and urgency of the above problem, the authors set the goal to justify the program of preparation and staging of special events intended to form the necessary tourist skills in students within the framework of the GTO requirements on the basis of a sociological analysis.

The survey of the 1-4th-year students of non-sporting specialities of bachelor training courses at Surgut State University (99 persons in total, 47 boys, 52 girls) it has been detected that more than 80% of the respondents do not have experience of participating in a camping trip. The survey results have generally confirmed the necessity of special training for the successful overcoming of the tourist route to be organized within the framework of a short-term program that can be implemented in the process of physical education. This will increase the students' competency level in the field of sport and health tourism and create the prerequisites for the successful fulfilment of the above-mentioned standard.