70% of students do not partake in sports - Report

The outcome emerging from Ghana’s Physical Activity Report Card for Children and Youth for three consecutive times, have 30% or less Junior and Senior High School Students partaking in activities relating to sport and physical activity and sport and health, this is according to the Active Healthy Kids Physical Activity Reports Cards research.

This implies that 70% of students do not take part in active sports, physical activity, and health activities or are leading sedentary lifestyles.

This data correlates with the WAEC report on the massive perennial failure in the West African Senior High School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). 70% of candidates failed in the WASSCE with 68% also failing in Mathematics.

It is clearly deducible that sports and physical activity and physical fitness improves cognition and brain health. Evidence available also suggests that mathematics is most influenced by physical fitness since it depends on efficient and executive functions.

Schools are taking out physical activity programs from their curriculum; either using the period for another program or taking it out completely from their academic schedule due to the overcrowding in our curriculum.

The International Conference on Physical Activity, Sports and Health for Development in Africa (IC-PASHDA) is an initiative of a larger network called the African Physical Activity Network (AFPAN). The main goal of AFPAN is to promote physical activity for health in all African nations by the year 2022.

Two international conferences held so far; the first in 2014 (Maputo, Mozambique) and the second in 2016 (Nairobi, Kenya) and now the third in Accra, Ghana from 19th-21st September 2018 at the University of Ghana.