Quality Physical Health Education Programme in Nigeria Essay

ABSTRACT The paper focused on the Need for Quality Physical Education (PE) Programme in the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Nigeria. It began with an observation on the inadequacy of precious educational systems which gave birth to UBE. Therefore, the paper attempted to answer the question – why there should be quality PE in the school. Furthermore, the paper examined roles of quality PE in the three Education Domains of Motor domain, cognitive domain and affective domain. The challenge of Quality Physical Education in the UBE programme was equally reviewed. The paper concluded that it is only the full implementation of its recommendation that would provide a lasting solution to the challenges of ensuring quality physical education programme in the UBE in Nigeria. INTRODUCTION The previous systems of education that were operated in Nigeria were inadequate to meet the needs for self reliance and rapid economic growth. It was this inadequacy that gave birth to a new one. The Universal Basic Education, Basic education is foundation for sustainable lifelong learning. it provides reading, writing and numeracy skills. The programme provides a wide variety of formal/non-formal educational, activities designed to enable the learner to acquire functional literacy. Basic education in Nigeria context, according to Awosika (2005), includes primary, junior secondary, nomadic and adult literacy education, which focuses on enabling the recipients to live meaningful and fulfilling lives, contribute to the development of the society, and derive maximum social, economic and cultural benefits from the society and discharge their civic obligations competently. WHY QUALITY PHYSICAL EDUCATION? The need for quality Physical Educational Programme offered in the Universal Basic Education (UBE) cannot be over-emphasized. Physical education programme which aims at developing a sound body in readiness for a sound moin has been described by many authors (Adedeji 1998, Ajisafe 1980, Anyanwu 1981, Awosika 1986 and Oyewusi 1992) as education through movement with the body as a vehicle. For several years, one of the goals of all concerned with the physical activity of children has been quality physical education offered daily in our nation’s schools. It is the right of the Nigerian child to be offered quality physical education. According to UNESCO 1978 in Awosika (2005), the International Charter of Physical Education and Sports declares that physical education and sports are fundamental rights for all, and specifically, that: i.Every human has a fundamental right to access physical education and sports which are essential for the full development of personality. The freedom to develop physical, intellectual and moral powers through physical education and sport must be guaranteed both within the education system and in other aspects of social life. ii.Everyone must have full opportunities, in which national traditions of sports, for practicing physical education and sports developing physical fitness and attaining a level of achievement in sport which corresponds to inherent gifts. iii.Special opportunities must be made available for young people, including children of pre-school age, for the aged and for the handicapped to develop their personalities to the full through physical education and sports programmes suited tot their requirements. For these reasons, the physical education curriculum must facilitate achieving National content standards for physical education. To accomplish this, Gallahue and Donnelly (2003) opined that the curriculum should include the following elements: 1.Fitness education and assessment to help children understand, improve, and/or maintain their physical well-being; 2.Instruction in a variety of motor skills that are designed to enhance the physical, mental, social and emotional development of every child; 3.Development of cognitive concepts about motor skills and health enhancing levels of fitness; 4.Opportunities to develop social and cooperative skills and gain a multicultural perspective. 5.Involvement of all children activities that provide maximum amounts of appropriate physical activity. QUALITY PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND THE EDUCATIONAL DOMAINS Any educational programme that does not contribute meaningfully to the educational domains is considered deficient and needs to be restructured. Physical education is sensitive to the motor, cognitive and affective domains and should be viewed as a subject, like any other that makes meaningful and measurable contributions to all three domains. Each of the domains will be looked at briefly in the following paragraphs: MOTOR DOMAIN The motor domain is the basis for the motor skill themes of the physical education programme. Motor development, according to Ayodele (2005), is a progressive change in one’s movement bahaviour brought about by interaction of the movement task with the biology of the individual and the conditions of the learning environment. In other words, one’s unique hereditary make up, along with specific environmental conditions combined with the requirements of the task itself to determine the rate and extents of the movement skill acquisition and fitness enhancement. Quality physical education programme, therefore, will help all children make adaptive change toward increased motor control and movement competence. This is achieved by involving the children in movement activities that are both appropriate to their age and development. COGNITIVE DOMAIN Physical education does not only make unique contribution to the acquisition of movement skills and physical fitness enhancement; it also makes meaningful contributions to the cognitive aspect of children’s development. Cognitive learning is a progressive change in the ability to act Bredenkamp, 1992 in Ayodele, 2005). Cognitive concept of learning can be effectively taught through movement, that is, active participation in activities. Usually, participation in most, if not all physical activities, begins in mind. The participants must first have a concept of the action, think and reason it out before the action. Considering the swiftness with which most physical education activities are performed, one can only imagine the beneficial tasking effect on the cognitive development. It is interesting to note too, that, movement often meets the needs and interest of children more than classroom activities that are less active. When a child is actively participating in a game that is teaching academic concepts, her attention is not easily diverted by extraneous stimuli (Ayodele, 2005). Also, many of today’s children under value academic achievement but have high regard for physical performance. AFFECTIVE DOMAINS An important outcome of any quality physical education programme is enhancement in the affective domain. Affective growth is learning that increased the ability of children to act, interact and react effectively with other people as well as with themselves. Affective growth is often referred to as â€Å"social – emotional development†. Physical education programme provide ample opportunity for interaction and the development of feelings (emotion) for others. CHALLENGES OF QUALITY PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN THE UBE PROGRAMME Quality physical education uses the gymnasium, playing fields as learning laboratory and numerous consumable equipment and supplies that calls for adequate funding. These are lacking in most of the schools. Quality physical education calls for teachers who are dedicated to children’s learning. it is not a â€Å"throw out the ball† programme or some form of glorified recess period. Gallaheu and Donnelly (2003) opined that if children are to realize the full potential of physical education, then, the physical education must continue to strive for quality physical education programmes offered daily. It has been also observed that Nigerian children are frequently unable to take advantage of the many benefits of vigorous physical activities because of poor or non existence of physical education programmes, sedentary life style and erroneous assumption that children by the very nature of being children get plenty of physical activity. As a result, low levels of physical fitne ss and movement skill attainment are all common. Pate (1995) opined that schools should offer physical education programmes, which provide and promote physical activity at every opportunity. Physical education and the school curriculum is another area of challenge. Though physical education has been formally entrenched into the UBE curriculum, effective teaching still leaves much to be desired. Findings have shown that many schools do not teach physical education as it should be taught, while some do not even teach it at all. Ajisafe (1991) attested to this claim that the periods of physical education are often used by children to work outside the class room either to clean the school premises or school farm. Lack of qualified physical education teachers is another challenge. Qualified Physical Education teachers have a lot of role to play in the school PE programme. They teach physical education, organize and administer intramural and extramural sports and they form the cream of the administrators of school sports. If physical education teachers are not adequate, non specialists in physical education cannot properly carry out these functions. Lack of motivation of physical education teachers and athletes; irregular intra-mural and extra-mural sports at school levels and many other challenges need to be urgently addressed to ensure quality PE programme in the school. RECOMMENDATION The following recommendations are put forward towards ensuring quality physical education programme in the Universal Basic Education in Nigeria. More so, school sports (intra-mural and extra-murals) is a forum to practicalize what has been learnt during physical education lessons, it is then imperative that the UBE programme should ensure that PE is properly taught in every school by: (i)Adequate funding of PE and sports programmes; (ii)Employment of adequate and qualified Physical Education teachers for the schools; (iii)Provision of sports and PE facilities, equipment and other supplies; (iv)Resuscitation of the annual intra-mural sports and the extra-mural sports; (v)The PE specialists should be abreast of the latest research, issues and trends in the field through ongoing professional development; (vi)Physical education classes should contain about 25 students per class in order to enhance effective teaching. CONCLUSION Every human being has a fundamental right to participate in sport and physical activity of their choice (UNESCO, 1978). For the children and youth, physical education should be taught in the schools by qualified teachers (Eoulon, 1994). It is only the full implementation of these and lasting solution to the challenges that would ensure quality physical education programmed in the Universal Basic Education in Nigeria. REFERENCES Adedeji, J.A. (1998). Physical Education in Educational Institutions in Nigeria. International Journal of Physical Education. (15) 4 Ajisafe, M.O. (1980). Teaching Physical and Health Education, Macmillan Nigeria Publishers Ltd. Yaba, Lagos. Ajisafe, M.O. (1991). Physical Education in the Service of Mankind (unpublished manuscript). Anyanwu, S.U. (1981). Secondary School Physical Education: Implications for the Development of Sports In Nigeria. The JONA PHER, (2), 2. Awosika, Yomi (1986). It pays to play: With Recreation During Economic Recession. 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