Vol. 2, Issue 1, Part A (2020)

A field survey of ‘’physical and health education (PHE) in Basic Education curriculum: a study Ishiagu, Ivo local govt. area of Ebonyi State’’ was undertaken in 2012 academic session with the following specific objectives: to assess the level of PHE facilities and literatures in the study area, to assess the level of PHE resource personnel in the study area, to assess the level of compliance of teachers to the curriculum content. Questionnaires, interview and field visit for PHE facilities was employed for the research. Systematic random samplings of the both the primary and junior secondary schools (this makes up the basic education in Nigeria) in the 11 villages that make up Ishiagu wasdone. Specifically, teachers and head teachers in the primary schools were covered while in the junior secondary schools, PHE teachers in one arm of the classes and the principals were covered. This serves as the representative unit for the area under study. Questionnaires were administered to one teacherin a class irrespective of the arms and the head teachers in the primary section. From each primary school, 7 questionnaires were administered. Within the 11 villages, this gives a total of 77 questionnaires administered.In the junior secondary schools, Ishiagu has 7 secondary schools. The PHE teachers and the principals covered in each secondary school were 4. In all the secondary schools, 28 questionnaireswere administered. This makes a total of 105 questionnaires administered. After the questionnaires were collated and coded, 100 were valid. Descriptive statistics was used in analyzing the collated data. The findings of the study indicated the following: that there are more female teachers at the basic education level, that the majority of the teachers are within the age range of 35 – 45 years, that PHE professionals, contact period, budget and facilities were significantly inadequate to realize the country’s objective of PHE curriculum content implementation. Contrarily, PHE teaching aids were adequate, that majority of the basic education institutions are regular, formal, government owned and student/pupil per class is within the range of 20 – 30, that majority of the schools was fenced, have motorable roads, classes ventilated, lacks portable water, not connected to national grid but improvised with generating set for power supply, majority of the school have first aid facilities for emergency medical attention and mid day meal were brought from home, toilet facilities were markedly inadequate given the student toilet / ratio, surrounding bushes were utilized by most schools covered. It was recommended that adequate PHE specialists be employed by primary and junior secondary schools and to have an office tagged ‘PHE Unit’ where they will hold and attend to PHE needs of their respective institutions, that government and school proprietors should adequately fund school for PHE facilities and organize prized sporting activities within and between schools, that approval for school establishment and accreditation should compulsorily have provision for PHE facilities, personnel and teaching aids.