Children’s perception of physical education and school Sport in Swaziland

Abstract

Children’s perception of physical education and school sport (PESS) influences their intention to participate in physical activities and understanding of its learning outcomes. Evaluation of students’ attitudes towards PESS can also be helpful to educators to gain deeper insight into the challenges facing the subject in schools, especially given the fact that the status of PESS has declined considerably in many countries (Hardman & Marshall, 2001). In this study, the Sport in Education (SpinEd) questionnaire developed by Bailey and Dismore (2005) was administered to 405 primary and junior secondary school students (225 boys and 180 girls) aged 6-15 years in Mbabane, Manzini and Piggs Peak, Swaziland. Results were analysed descriptively. Children’s responses concerning PESS were categorized under five domains, i.e. physical, cognitive, social, affective and lifestyle. In general, Swazi children had positive attitudes towards PESS, with older girls indicating less favourable attitudes than the younger ones. The girls also had poorer perceived competence in PESS activities compared to the boys. Regardless of age and sex, the children overwhelmingly rated Mathematics, Science and English as more important than PESS. The physical domain accounted for the children’s positive perception of PESS as they gave similar reasons for participating in PESS activities regardless of gender, i.e. to be healthy and fit, prepare for school sport competition and identify with own school. The implications of the findings for designing and implementing quality PESS programmes in Swazi schools were discussed.