Physical Education Programme in Primary Schools

The Central CBSE Board of Secondary Education in collaboration with British Council and under the directives of MHRD, Government of India has recently launched the Physical Education Programme. The programme aims at strengthening the delivery of the Physical Education in the primary School based on specially designed cards and sports equipment for the different age groups from classes 1 to 5.

The objectives of the Physical Education Programme are :

1. to offer support by introducing new teaching approaches and activities for primary age group physical education lessons.

2. to provide a new range of educational resources for Physical Education.

3. to offer training to all of the primary staff who deliver primary physical education lessons.

4. to assist schools to deliver elements of the Physical Education curricula.

5. to act as a research based project that will demonstrate the wider benefits that Physical Education can have on the whole child education outcomes.

The CBSE has produced a Physical Education Teacher Training Manual and a set of Physical Education Cards for schools affiliated to CBSE. These Physical Education Cards are meant for teachers teaching at the primary level and are an effective tool for strengthening the transaction of Physical Education in schools.

They can be used for providing inclusive and interesting experiences to the children at the primary school stage and facilitating the process of engaging with them intensively in games and activities focused particularly on agility, balance, coordination, speed and strength. Each Physical Education Card is devoted to a particular set up activities which aims at agility, balance and coordination for classes I-III and agility, balance, coordination speed and strength for classes IV and V. These features make this teaching-aid material special and have convinced the stakeholders that if these Cards are used effectively, the transaction of this curricular area will result in achieving desired outcomes leading to behavioural modification.

Each Card is aimed at providing the essential information needed for engaging all students of the concerned class in the selected game/activity. The title of the Card specifies the abilities to be focused by the particular activities, the activities to be organized, the process of organizing the activities, equipment that will be needed, safety measures to be taken and the skills to be developed. Besides the link of the activities with the existing curriculum the links with other school subjects or crosscurricular links and the process of self assessment are also detailed.

The CBSE has also brought out a Teachers’ Manual for implementation of the Physical Education Cards which will help teachers in organizing physical activities and lessons built around it. There is also a section on organizing activities for differently abled children as well as assessment in Physical Education in the Teachers’ Manual.

The Physical Education Teachers’ Manual is priced at Rs. 150/- and PEC of Physical Education Cards is priced at Rs. 250/-. These are available at the Publication Store, CBSE, Shiksha Sadan, 17, Rouse Avenue, New Delhi-110002 as well as the Regional Offices.

The Physical Education Cards (PEC) need to be implemented at primary level by not only the Physical Education teachers but also teachers of other subjects. Hence it is recommended that each teacher teaching a class should have a set of Physical Education Cards. Teacher training for implementing these cards will be done by the CBSE through the Asstt. Education Officer (Sports). Those interested in teacher training may get in touch with Mr. Pushkar Vohra, AEO(Sports), CBSE, 2 Community Centre, Preet Vihar, Delhi-110 092 at telephone no. 011-22050061 and e-mail at sportskpfit@sify.com or sportskpfit@hotmail.com.