Why Physical Education Is Not Taught in Primary Schools: Views of Teachers in Twifo Atti-Morkwa District of Central Region, Ghana

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%)


Introduction
PE is an important educational process which aims at improving and enhancing human performance and development by participating in physical activities [PA]. According to Chakraborty, Nandi, & Adhikari (2012), it is a vital element in a comprehensive well-balanced curriculum because it helps learners develop competencies. It is therefore observed that, for overall development, children should participate in physical activities such as sports and exercises. This is because it is the main contributory factor in the improvement of an individual in all aspects of life (that is, physical, emotional, mental and social). It entails systematic instruction in sports, training, practice, gymnastics, exercises, and hygiene within the school and college settings (Kirui, 2007). PE has been widely acknowledged as a key vehicle for promoting PA among children (Biddle & Mutrie, 2008). The physical, social and emotional benefits of PA during childhood are well documented in literature. In support of this claim, Chakraborty and colleagues argue that it provides the opportunity for children to lead a physically active lifestyle.
The contribution of PE to the personal, social and physical development of the child is well known (McGuinness & Shelly, 2003). PE provides children with the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary to perform a variety of PA, maintain physical fitness and value as well as enjoy PA as an ongoing part of a healthy lifestyle. PE contributes towards the growth of a child into a healthy, intelligent, confident and level-headed adult. Students need to take part in PA more frequently than is possible in their schools' curricular programmes (Mungai, Sang, & Wamutitu, 2014). There are many benefits PE provides today's students and society. Within a school setting, a PE programme can serve society in many ways if implemented and utilised appropriately. There are many areas PE can serve and positively affect students and society. One is overall physical fitness.
For example, PE helps students and society improve skill-related components such as speed, agility, reaction time, balance, coordination, and basic movement patterns. Physical education helps students and society improve upon their strength, endurance, flexibility, and cardiovascular/respiratory activities.
It is in light of this that Mozaffarian et al. (2012) recommended that if children and adolescents want to increase their life expectancies, they need to eat healthier foods and become physically active. Bailey (2006)

asserts that Physical
Education and Sports (PES) have numerous advantages linked with active participation. Talbot (2009) noted that PE helps children to develop self-respect, helps in integrating social, cognitive and physical growth, develops knowledge of PA maintains healthy joints and muscles so that one can undertake their daily activities and be physically fit. According to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education & American Heart Association (2012), PE improves one's overall well-being and is one of the best preventers of significant health problems linked to many chronic diseases (e.g., obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol). No other school subject has the potential to fulfill these health needs. If schools are to make a positive impact on children's health now and in the future, PE must form an integral part of the school curriculum and must be taught by qualified teachers, and focus on healthy behaviours.  (Cohen & Hill, 2000;Holland, 2005;Spiller & Fraser, 1999;Walkwitz & Lee, 1992). As Ennis (1994) points out, teachers, like their students, need to become lifelong learners who pursue continuing growth in knowledge, understanding and skills.
The essence of PE in a school curriculum is to help learners develop competencies and beliefs. Daily quality PE in the nation's schools is an important part of a students' comprehensive, well-rounded education programme and a means of positively affecting life-long health and well-being (Kirui, 2007). Dora (2014) observed that students who participate in PE have high energy levels and are more alert than those who lead sedentary lifestyles. Due to these reasons, the productivity of such students in various spheres of life, including their studies, improves considerably. This implies that PE contributes towards the growth of a child into a healthy, intelligent, confident and levelheaded adult. Students therefore need to take part in PA more frequently than is possible in their schools' curricular programme (Mungai et al., 2014). The teacher is considered to be the major and first instrument in education. In effect, schools rely on teachers in preparing generations of students with the requisite competencies to perform duties assigned to them. Thus, the teacher plays a significant role in the education process (Kirui, 2007). This is significant because it takes a competent teacher to promote the holistic development of the learner.
The desire appears to stem from professional commitment to provide the best education possible to student in one hand, and the need to meet regulatory processes of management issues and learning environment on the other hand. It is not only schools that have a key role to play. It is also apparent that physical with these attributes. However, it is the quality of the programmes in schools that will ensure that young people are given the opportunities to become physically-educated individuals (Lee et al., 2007). Morgan & Hansen (2008) stated that in many regions of the world, PE is considered as a non-productive activity, less important to a successful future than academic subjects. In other words, there is a prevailing perception that one cannot build a career on it inspite of the overwhelming evidence that sports, which forms part of PE, is a money-making industry in the western world and in some African countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia (Mudekunye & Sithole, 2012).
Teachers are of the view that they are poorly prepared for the teaching of PE and that they lack confidence. This claim supports Drewett's (Drewett, 2005) (Starc & Strel, 2012). Amusa, Toriola, & Goon (2013) assert that traditionally, most African societies associate PE with play and leisure. This is significant because such societies perceive PE as only involving PAs thereby not making any meaningful contribution towards the overall development of the learner.

Statement of the Problem
A survey conducted by college lecturers on the status of PE in Zimbabwean primary schools revealed that the subject is timetabled for the sake of student teachers and there is little or no support from school administrators (Musangeya et al., 2000). Owing to this, the status of PE remains shaky and low because teachers consider it low in their scale of values. The time for teaching PE was considered time for both teachers and pupils to relax and was nothing more than recess and play. Any activity perceived in this manner may never be taken seriously, and this explains why PE ranks low in society's scale of values (Amusa, Toriola, & Groon, 2013 In Jordan, a study by Oudat (2016) indicated that the highest challenge facing the PE teachers was the increased numbers of students in the classroom. As a result, teachers are not able to teach the students PE in a good manner. According to Amusa, Toriala, & Groon (2013), subjects such as Mathematics and English are deemed productive because they equip students with skills to solve problems they could not solve at the beginning of the course. In other words, there is a sense of outcome, which pervades these subjects, which is lacking in PE. The researchers, during their years of teaching as classroom teachers, including working in primary schools in the Twifo AttiMorkwa District, observed that though PE was on the timetable, teachers were not teaching it as the other subjects like English Language, Mathematics and Integrated Science. During PE lessons, the pupils were made to go out and as the boys were playing soccer, the girls will also be playing "ampe" (a local Ghanaian sport played only by girls), while other pupils will be sleeping in the classrooms. In fact, PE periods were not used in teaching the subject as was the case for other subjects such as Mathematics, English, Science, etc.
From the anecdotal evidence, teachers who were qualified to teach PE did not seem to like teaching it, owing to its perceived low value relative to other subjects such as Mathematics and English. The teaching of PE was left in the hands of student teachers on teaching practice, who felt obliged to teach it because they were undergoing training. Immediately they complete their training and are qualified, then they follow the example of their older colleagues in marginalising the subject as well. It is against this background that the researchers wanted to find out from the teachers in the classroom, why PE as a school time-tabled subject was not taught especially in a district like the Twifo Atti-Morkwa (TAM) district of Central Region, which is predominately rural in nature. Despite the fact that the teaching of PE has been relegated to the background in most developing countries, research has dedicated little attention to investigating the reasons why such is happening (Hardman, 2008).

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study was therefore to investigate the views of basic school teachers on why PE is not taught as a school subject in primary schools at the Twifo Atti-Morkwa (TAM) District in the Central Region of Ghana. Specifically, the study sought to find out the percentage of basic school teachers who actually taught PE as a school subject and also whether factors such as attitude of teachers, training of teachers, nature of school curriculum and the provision of facilities and equipment affected the teaching of PE as a school subject in the TAM District.

Research Questions
The following research questions were formulated to guide this study:

Methodology
A cross-sectional descriptive survey design was used. The descriptive design was well thought-out to be appropriate for the study since an attempt was made by the researcher to describe the existing situation on the subject matter by asking respondents to complete a questionnaire so as to draw meaningful conclusions (Sarantakos, 2005). The study was conducted in the Twifo/Atti-Morkwa District, which is one of the twenty administrative districts in the Central Region of Ghana. There are ninety-one (91) primary schools in the district with five hundred and forty-six (546) teachers (Twifo Atti-Morkwa District Assembly, 2017.
The population for the study comprised all teachers in public primary schools in the Twifo Atti-Morkwa District, which was 546 teachers in the 91 basic schools in the TAM district.
The researchers employed the census approach in selecting the research participants. Thus, all 546 teachers who form part of the study population were included in the study because they are all trained to be able to teach physical education as a school subject in their various classes in the primary school. A researcher designed questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument for the study. The questionnaire was designed from existing literature on teacher perception of PE being taught in schools (Nhamo, 2012;Sirimba, 2015 Cronbach alpha test to establish the internal reliability of the instrument. A reliability co-efficient of 0.76 was obtained which was considered good enough for the instrument to be used for the study. The rural primary schools in the Sekondi Metropolis were selected for the pre-testing because they share some common characteristics with the rural primary schools used for the main study in the TAM district of Central Region. As the study involved human participants, all the necessary protocols were followed. One month was used for the data collection after securing approval from the University of Cape Coast Institutional Review Board and also from The Ghana Education Service. The data collected was analysed using mainly descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages). For research question 1, one item measured whether teachers in TAM district teach PE as expected. Response to the question was either "YES" or "NO". For research question 2, nine items measured the perception of teachers towards PE as a school time-tabled subject. Responses to the items were "AGREE" or "DISAGREE". All responses that "AGREED" with the statements asked, were scored as negative perception towards PE, whiles responses that "DISAGREED" were scored as positive perception towards PE. To determine whether majority of the responses to all the 9 items "AGREED" or "DISAREEED" an overall score was calculated by totaling all "AGREED" and "DISAGREED" responses and dividing both by 9. For research question 3, eight items measured teachers' views on how their training and ability to teach affected their teaching of PE. Responses to the items were "AGREE" or "DISAGREE". Responses that "AGREED" with the statements asked were scored as indicating that, lack of training and ability of teachers to teach affected the teaching of PE, whiles responses that "DISAGREED" were scored as indicating that, lack of training and ability of teachers was not a factor affecting the teaching of PE. An overall score was calculated by totaling all "AGREED" and "DISAGREED" responses and dividing both by 8. For research question 4, three items measured the views of teachers on whether the nature of the school curriculum affected the teaching of PE.
Responses to the items were also "AGREE" or "DISAGREE" and responses that "AGREED" with the statements asked were scored as indicating that the nature of the school curriculum affected the teaching of PE, whiles responses that "DISAGREED" were scored as indicating that the nature of the school curriculum was not a factor affecting the teaching of PE. The overall score was calculated by totaling all "AGREED" and "DISAGREED" responses and dividing both by 3. For research question 5, a single item measured the views of teachers on whether the provision of facilities and equipment affected the teaching of PE. Response to the question was either "YES" or "NO". "YES" responses indicated that the teachers did not view provision of adequate facilities and equipment as a factor affecting their teaching, whiles "NO" responses indicated the opposite, i.e.
provision of adequate facilities and equipment affected teaching of PE in TAM district. For research question 6, respondents were provided with a list of 6 facilities and 11 equipment to indicate whether these facilities and equipment were available for the teaching of PE and whether they were in good condition and sufficient for the teaching of the subject. Responses indicated the availability or non-availability of the facilities and equipment and also, the condition of the facilities and sufficiency of the equipment.

Results
Research Question 1: What percentage of basic school teachers teach PE as a school subject in TAM district of the Central Region?
The first research question sort to find out the percentage of primary school teachers who actually teach PE as a subject in the TAM District. Results in Table   1 show that only 73 teachers (13.6%) out of 536 in the TAM District agreed that they actually teach PE as a subject in the school. Four hundred and sixty-three (86.4%) of the teachers stated that they do not teach PE as a subject in the TAM District.
Research Question 2: What are the perceptions of primary school teachers in TAM district of the Central Region towards PE as a school time-tabled subject? Table 2 shows the responses from teachers in TAM district on their perception towards PE as a subject. As can be seen from Table 2, the majority of respondents disagreed with each of the 9 items that sort to measure whether the teachers had any negative perception towards PE. The overall score of responses indicated that 343 (64%) respondents had positive perceptions towards PE since they disagreed with the statements, whiles 193 (36%) of respondents had a negative perception towards PE as a subject in the primary school.
Research Question 3: What are the views of primary school teachers on how training of teachers affects the teaching of PE as a subject in TAM District of the Central Region?    Table 4 shows the responses from teachers in TAM district on how the nature of the school curriculum affects the teaching of PE as a school subject in primary schools. As can be seen from Table 4, the majority of respondents agreed with each of the 3 items that sort to measure whether the nature of the school curriculum affected the teaching of PE as a subject. The overall score of responses indicated that 437 (81.5%) respondents agreed that the nature of the school curriculum affected their teaching of PE, whiles 99 (18.5%) disagreed.
Research Question 5: What are the views of primary school teachers on how the provision of adequate facilities and equipment affects the teaching of PE as a subject in TAM District of the Central Region?
Results in Table 5 show responses from teachers in TAM district on how the provision of adequate facilities and equipment affects the teaching of PE as a school subject in primary schools. As can be seen from Results in Table 6 show that majority of the teachers (96.6%) indicated that their schools had football fields. Slightly less than half (47%) of the respondents  said their schools had volleyball courts. A similar proportion (44.6%) also indicated that there were netball courts in their schools. Still on the facilities, only five point six percent (5.6%) and six point two percent (6.2%) of the respondents mentioned that they had handball courts and athletic ovals respectively in their schools.
Concerning equipment, 85.6% of the teachers responded in the affirmative that their schools had footballs. About 47% of the respondents said their schools had netball uprights while about 38% each said their schools had netballs and volleyballs. Only a few of the respondents indicated that their schools had handballs, table tennis sets, shot put missiles, javelins and basketballs. For instance, with the latter three, less than five percent (<5%) of the teachers said their schools had those equipment.

Discussion
Research question one sought to find out the percentage of teachers who actually teach PE in the TAM district of the Central Region. The finding revealed that the majority of the teachers do not teach PE in the primary schools as expected. This time is afforded to other academic subjects. Teaching of physical education at the primary school in TAM district as it stands shows that almost all teachers deny pupils the opportunity to express themselves freely in purposeful activities during physical education lessons. As Drewett (2005) asserts, teachers tend to teach a limited scope of the PE programme, based on the available facilities and resources as well as the competencies that the teacher brings into the teaching and learning. Could this be the case with most of the primary school teachers in TAM district, since the majority of them fail to teach PE as expected? The finding of this study also appears to agree with the position of Curry (2012) who indicated that primary school teachers frequently skip the compulsory PE hours from their week because they are emotionally pressured by the scope of the curriculum and their lack of experience and capability to teach certain aspects of the PE curriculum. Oudat (2016) indicated that the highest challenge facing the PE teachers was the increased numbers of the students in the classroom which results in the teachers' inability to teach students PE in a good manner. Primary school teachers in TAM may be facing similar challenges, hence their inability to teach PE as expected.
The second research question sought to investigate the perception of primary school teachers towards the subject PE. The finding indicated that the majority of the teachers rather had positive perceptions towards the subject PE, as they appreciated its contribution to the development of pupils. The researchers were interested in finding out the perception teachers had towards PE as a subject in the primary school because evidence shows that once a teacher perceives a particular subject to be valuable, then attitude towards that subject also becomes positive and there is the likelihood that such a teacher will teach such a subject well. Some studies have found that teachers hold quite negative feelings towards PE (De Boer, Pijl, & Minnaert, 2011), which is contrary to the finding of the current study. Findings by Morgan & Hansen (2008) that teachers believe in the benefits of PE appear to agree with the positive perception teachers had towards PE, as revealed by this study. Jenkinson & Benson (2010) also found that teachers believed in the value of PE. However, the authors (Jenkinson, & Benson)  Supporting the findings of this current study, a by Mbumba (2011) in Namibia revealed that the majority of children, especially those in rural areas, had either not gotten the opportunity to attend PE classes or were in schools where PE was neglected or totally omitted because of the lack of facilities or qualified teachers.
Similarly, in Ghana, Quay (2014) indicated that the challenges in teaching PE are large classroom sizes and inadequate facilities and equipment for practical lessons.
As a follow up to research question five, the researchers were interested in finding out what facilities and equipment were available in the TAM district for the teaching of PE in primary school. This was answered by research question six. Finding revealed that the district had only adequate football (soccer) fields and footballs as facilities and equipment. Teachers at the primary school level are expected to introduce their pupils to a variety of games such as football, volleyball, handball, netball, etc. and also track and field events. A district like TAM should have adequate facilities and equipment for all these games and events and not just football facilities and equipment. It is obvious that teachers will struggle to adequately teach PE which is mainly practical centered at the primary school level in the district, due to the inadequacy of these facilities and equipment. The finding of this study is supported by Drewett's (Drewett, 2005) assertion that teachers tend to teach a limited scope of the programme, based on the available facilities and resources needed to teach. Hardman's (Hardman, 2014) observation that the quality of facilities for physical education in most countries was below average and was limited in quantity, particularly in developing countries fits perfectly with what was found by this study in the TAM district of the Central Region of Ghana.

Conclusion
Based on the findings, it is concluded that: 1) Teachers do not teach PE in the primary schools as expected in the TAM district of the Central Region of Ghana.
2) Teachers in the TAM district surprisingly have positive perceptions about the subject PE.
3) Poor training of teachers, the overcrowded and demanding nature of the school curriculum and inadequate provision of facilities and equipment are seen as factors affecting the teaching of PE in the primary schools in the TAM district.

Recommendations
The following recommendations are made: 1) The TAM District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service should embark upon the supervision of the teaching of PE in primary schools to deal with the situation where teachers who are expected to teach the subject PE as part of their work are failing to do.
2) The TAM District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service should also organise in-service training for all primary school teachers to help train them to effectively teach the subject PE.
3) The Curriculum Development and Research Division of the Ghana Education Service should consider de-congesting the primary school curriculum to allow the teachers to be able to teach all subjects equally well. 4) Lastly, the TAM District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service and the TAM District Assembly should work to provide adequate facilities and equipment for PE in the various schools to enable teachers to teach PE well.