Physical Education guide for teachers launched
The Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture last week launched the “Physical Education for Life” Educator’s Guide to assist educators to use physical education as a tool to achieve holistic personal and societal developmental objectives.
The Deputy Minister of Education, Arts and Culture, Ester Nghipondoka, at the launch said they signed a Terms of Reference with the Ministry of Sports, Youth and National Service in 2017, where they made the commitment to ensure improved implementation of Integrated Physical Education and School Sports.
“This guide that we are launching for the training of our teachers is one of the outcomes of this agreement between our ministries and we are very proud of our collaborative efforts,” she added.
She said the benefits of physical education and sports reach beyond the impact on physical well-being and the value of the educational benefits of physical education and sports should not be underestimated.
“The idea of this guide came from the Sports for Development (S4D), programme which the Ministry piloted in some regions in 2015, therefore having seen the impact that the programme can make, we decided to use the concepts to strengthen physical education in schools,” she added.
According to her the manual will help teachers to use PE to strengthen life skills curriculum, not only ensuring physical activity, but that they are engaging with life skills in a practical manner.
“Our mission is to provide accessible, equitable and inclusive education for a tolerant, skilled and productive nation, and tolerance is not something that people learn from mathematics or science, but tolerance comes from engaging with your peers in a constructive manner and PE and sports provide us with that opportunity,” she added.
The guide contains sample lesson plans for PE teachers, which integrate the outcome of the PE Curriculum with Life Skills and healthy lifestyle themes, illustrating how PE can relate to and help learners cope with real life situations.
Furthermore the guide calls on teachers to connect with learners and create a culture of care in the school environment.
