Physical Education returning to SA Schools as a stand-alone subject

Physical Education will be returning to South African Schools as a stand-alone subject. This is one of the main resolutions taken at the two-day Schools Sports Indaba which concluded in Johannesburg earlier on Friday.

Sports Minister Zizi Kodwa has described the event as a big success, aimed at removing all obstacles to create a uniform sports plan for all schools in South Africa. The two-day Schools Indaba has been labelled by many as a game changer. Kodwa says the ultimate goal is to revive school sport in South Africa.

“Unless you get a commitment and a consensus amongst the stakeholders to buy in that physical education as something extra-mural, it must be part of a curriculum as a starting point. In Europe, for an example, somebody said it in the presentation yesterday to an extent that they take physical education seriously not because they want to win games but it’s part of building a complete human being, should you fail physical education you repeat the whole course,” says Kodwa.

The aim is to get school-going children to have at least two hours of physical education every week. Sifiso Ngobese from the Department of Basic Education says they are fully behind the proposal.

“It created an opportunity for us that we can come together debate issues. Yes, of course, there will be areas where we don’t see eye to eye, but we all agreed that at the centre of all our discussion is that there is a child, there is a South African child that we must provide a fertile ground for them to be developed in terms of sport in schools,” says Ngobese.