Barriers to Providing Quality Physical Education in Primary Schools in Ghana

Abstract

The goal of physical education (PE) is to develop physically literate individuals to pursue a lifetime of healthful physical activity. Schools in Ghana, like other sub-Saharan African countries, do not implement their PE programs in accordance to policy. Thus, it is important to identify those factors that prevent schools from delivering quality PE. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine what primary school teachers in Ghana perceived as barriers to teaching PE. Participants were 296 primary school teachers purposively selected from four regions of Ghana. An 11-item 5-point Likert-type questionnaire served as the data source. The study utilized descriptive and inferential statistical tools for data analysis. Results revealed four major barriers to teaching PE: lack of resources such as teacher's guide, lack of time, lack of support from other teachers and lack of adequate training. Independent t-Test showed that gender significantly influenced teachers' perception of barriers to teaching PE, while school type did not. One-Way ANOVA showed that professional qualification influenced the teachers' perceptions about the importance of PE.