TITLE:
Why Physical Education Is Not Taught in Primary Schools: Views of Teachers in Twifo Atti-Morkwa District of Central Region, Ghana
AUTHORS:
Apaak Daniel, Hayford Nancy Nora, Sorkpor Richmond Stephen, Frimpong James Boadu
KEYWORDS:
Generalist Teacher, Physically Active Lifestyle, Physical Activities, Physical Education, Specialist Teacher, Twifo Atti-Morkwa
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Physical Education,
Vol.12 No.1,
February
16,
2022
ABSTRACT: The physical, social and emotional benefits of Physical Education (PE) have been well established. Nevertheless, the subject is mostly either not taught at all or not taught well by teachers. This study, therefore, aimed at investigating why PE as a subject was not taught as expected in basic schools in the Twifo Atti-Morkwa District (TAM) of the Central Region in Ghana. The study focused on investigating whether the perception of teachers towards PE, training of teachers, nature of school curriculum and availability of facilities and equipment were factors affecting the teaching of PE in basic schools within the TAM district. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey, which utilised primary data collected from a total of 536 basic school teachers in the TAM district. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) were used to analyse the data collected. The results revealed the following; the majority (86.4%) of the teachers did not actually teach PE in the primary schools, the majority (64%) of teachers had positive perceptions towards PE, majority of the teachers viewed training of teachers (78.4%), nature of school curriculum (81.5%) and provisions of facilities and equipment (93.1%) as factors affecting the teaching of PE in TAM District. On the availability of facilities and equipment for the teaching of PE, results revealed that football fields (96.6%) and footballs (85.6%) were the most available facilities and equipment for teaching PE. The study recommends that the Ghana Education Service through its PE Directorate should embark on the supervision of PE teaching, provision of in-service training of teachers on teaching PE, decongestion of the school curriculum and the provision of adequate facilities and equipment to enhance the teaching of PE in the TAM district.