What is Primary School Physical Education?

The first pertinent question you may ask is What is Physical Education? Physical Education as a term, consists of two words namely physical and education. the word physical means body, that is the physical body. In this case, we are considering the human body.   On the other hand education is generally defined as a change in human behavior as a result of what the child is able to do, see, feel, hear etc all his experiences. In this case, the physical activities the child is able to do, see other do, and hear how they are done.
Physical Education therefore, can be defined as the development of an individual ( changing his behavior physical, mentally, socially and emotionally) through the medium of physical activities purposely designed to achieve these objective. So Physical Education in the primary school should include the activities that contribute to:

• promoting physical growth and total physical health of the child.
• developing of those skills fundamental in sports and games later in life e.g walking running, climbing, jumping etc.
• development of muscular strength, flexibility endurance as well as motor coordination. This will help them to meet their everyday personal and social pressure and challenges with relative ease. 
• creating a learning environment in which pupils and teachers interact in a personalized manner.
• giving equal opportunity to all children to participate in physical activities in a well designed instructional programme. 
• providing the opportunities for engaging in all school sponsored intra-mural and inter-school activities.
• development of child socially and emotionally.
• emphasizing the mastery of subject matter and the development of the child's mental processes.

   Physical Education as a subject in elementary school curriculum must be not be considered merely as a means of training the body. It must be thought of as an integral part of the total educational curriculum with similar goals and unique contributions. Physical Education in elementary school covers a wide field of studies which do not limit child only to various games and athletic activities but also involves a wide range of theoretical knowledge acquisition. The programme consists of four following areas:

1. Class instructional activities and related knowledge
2. Physical fitness activities.
3. Intra-mural sport programme
4. Inter school sport programme (or extramural sports )