‘Make school physical activity compulsory’

Physical activity should be compulsory in schools.

That is the view of a joint local and international team of researchers who studied the effects of being active on children’s concentration levels.

In their latest publication, the team said data they had collected at Port Elizabeth schools showed that physical activity was beneficial to academic performance.

The research focused on evaluating the difference a 20week school-based physical activity intervention programme made on the schoolwork of primary school children.

The research is part of the Dash (Disease, Activity and Schoolchildren’s Health) study, conducted by Nelson Mandela University in collaboration with the department of sport, exercise and health from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute.

Professor Cheryl Walter, head of the department of human movement science at NMU, said 663 children between the ages of eight and 13 from eight primary schools formed part of the study.

She said the schools were based in township areas and in the northern areas.

Walter said that after the 20week programme was completed a test had been done to measure “selective attention” (the ability to concentrate) among the pupils.

End-of-year school results in maths, life skills, home language and additional language were used as an indicator of academic performance.

“The data analysis suggested that the physical activity intervention had a positive effect on academic performance.”

This confirms the findings of other studies in the same field.

She said physically active and fit children tended to have better concentration performance than their less fit peers.

“After eliminating other factors that could also possibly have affected academic performance, the physical activity condition contributed to the maintenance of academic performance, whereas a decrease was observed in learners in the control condition.

“School administrators should take care and ensure that their staff implements physical activity lessons, which are a compulsory component of the school curriculum,” she said.

The ongoing research project has provided a number of positive outcomes since it started in 2015.

This included a shock finding that in some schools up to 60% of children were infected with intestinal parasites and that this affected their ability to concentrate and academic performance.

Walters said that following their study, the Eastern Cape department of health started annual mass deworming campaigns in the affected areas.

Other small and easy-to-implement interventions, focusing on hygiene and activity levels, were also implemented to improve children’s ability to focus at school.

The study proposed the designing of tool kits for teachers to improve physical education, health, hygiene and nutrition.

“Our results are in line with previous studies showing maintenance and/or a smaller decline of academic performance in children participating in a physical activity intervention, compared to those experiencing no change in physical activity levels,” the study concluded.

“Our findings indicate that the promotion of physical activity may be a strategy to maintain academic performance,” the authors said.

‘The physical activity contributed to the maintenance of academic performance’ Cheryl Walter

NMU PROFESSOR