Addressing challenges of PE in South African public schools

Physical education (PE) has increasingly received global recognition as subject in aid of multi-faceted development in United Nation’s policy frameworks, declarations and strategic initiatives. This informed a national study on the state and status of PE in South African public schools in which 27 researchers from nine public South African universities participated. Four school types were included in all nine provinces. The paper reflects on the challenges and actionable recommendations obtained from interviews with key decision-makers (n=140), focus group discussions with HODs and teachers (n=323), secondary and primary school learners (n=601) who also completed questionnaires (HODs, n=56; teachers, n=175; primary school learners, n=1333; and secondary school learners, n=1348). Results show multiple approaches of PE implementation with key challenges relating to the low status, curricular constraints (time allocation, multiple assessments and content) and differential access (as per Quintile type of school) to resources. Teacher training remains a prominent concern as only 38.1% teachers and 40.0% HODs are formally qualified showing an “age-effect” and 14.7% schools outsourcing PE to external coaches or NGOs. Most girls (>65% primary and >74% secondary school learners) “dislike” the narrow range of competitive sport activities presented in large mixed-gender class settings.