The relationship between educational achievement and physical activity among rural secondary school learners in Xihoko Circuit in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate the relationship between educational achievement (EA) and physical activity (PA) among rural secondary school learners based on the hypothesis that PA boasts educational achievement. The participants (n=275) (164 girls and 111 boys) aged 17-27 were selected from three rural high schools at Xihoko Circuit, Limpopo Province in South Africa. Due to mounting pressures to reach adequate yearly progress, many school officials view non-assessed activities like Physical Education (PE) and recess as unnecessary, consequently creating a case for the elimination of any subject that is not directly measured through standardized testing. This action ends up depriving learners of one of the elements that they need to do well in the classroom. Participation in PE has been found to have many benefits, such as, improved EA and health. This is the only subject that provides learners with an opportunity for PA after long hours of sitting. Most of the evidence linking PA to student achievement comes from studies looking at the impact of PE classes. Overall, there seems to be consensus among those who have studied the issue that reducing the amount of instructional time devoted to “academic” subjects in order to devote more time to PE does not harm students’ EA. On the contrary, schools that have reduced their PE time have not seen reliable improvements in student achievement. Finding a link between EA and PA may make educational leaders to re-evaluate time spent during the school day.

In this study, data was collected for one month. PA data were collected by means of a self-report Youth Physical Activity Questionnaire (YPAQ), whereas data on EA were obtained through Mathematics and English tests scores. The University of Limpopo granted ethical clearance for the study and the permission to access schools was given by the Department of Education, Limpopo. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18. The results revealed a low positive correlation (r = .079) for English and (r = .086) for Mathematics. The null hypothesis was rejected as a results of the chi-square test outcome which revealed that at p< 0.05, df = 2, the c2 = 8.06 for Mathematics and c2 =147.2 for English. Since these values are greater than 5.99 chi-square statistical value, it means that the relationship between EA and PA exists, though non-significant. This has important implications for the introduction of PE in the school curriculum in the face of increasing sedentary life styles among young people and declining education performance that is plaguing our education system.