Here is What CS Magoha Said Concerning PE in Primary and Secondary Schools
Cabinet Secretary for Education Prof George Magoha is seeking to make Physical Education (PE) compulsory in all institutions of Basic education.
According to the Ministry of Education’s new policy, all schools shall have sports communities and clubs to manage the teaching of Physical education. The policy is intended to make games a critical aspect of the curriculum.
Primary and secondary schools will be required to have teachers who are trained and regularly retrained for physical education under the Ministry of Education’s new guidelines.
It is obvious to see that physical education at the moment is taught in schools but teachers take it casually. This is attributed to the fact that PE is elective, non-examinable, and rarely enforced.
In the new physical education and sports policy for basic education, Cabinet Secretary for Education George Magoha wants to make the subject compulsory and taught just like other regular subjects or disciplines.
Emphasis on physical education is with the intention of adjusting schools with the new curriculum – the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
The CBC has entrenched sports as a learning area and a career pathway as well as prepared learners for an “active lifestyle that lasts a lifetime”.
“Quality physical education is a platform for inclusion in the wider society particularly in terms of challenging stigma and overcoming stereotypes. This is especially so for learners with special needs and those living with disabilities,” reveals the policy document.
The Ministry of Education’s intention to make Physical Education a compulsory subject could potentially face the problem of many learning institutions lacking fundamental infrastructure for sports such as playgrounds, other facilities, and qualified trainers.
The subject is included in timetables in all schools but teachers, including principals, take those lessons to cover the content of other disciplines.
Quality Assurance officers have also been blamed for showing very little interest, if any, in Physical Education.
When promotions are being done, PE teachers are also left in the cold as it is difficult to figure out how a teacher has been efficient in a non-examinable subject.
Many schools take sports seriously only during inter-school tournaments. However, only those with facilities show interest in it.
According to a recent survey of post-primary school teachers, 69 percent of the sampled group revealed that they do not possess the skills and technical knowledge to teach PE, while 62 percent state that they have never been given any professional knowledge on the subject.
According to the survey, 60 percent of teachers do not engage learners in any physical activity during PE lessons.
Unlike secondary school teachers, all Primary school teachers train to teach PE as a teaching subject.
According to the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE), teachers graduating with certificates and diplomas in special education are required to have PE as a mandatory component in their training.
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