HISTORY OF PHYSICAL AND HEALTH EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

Physical and health education is an integral part of general education that aims to develop an individual physically, mentally, socially and emotionally. It consist of sports and games, recreation, first aid, safety education, sports psychology, exercise physiology, sports administration and management, among others. In ancient times, physical education in Nigeria was unstructured and it included physical activities for hunting in search for food. However, some traditional games were also played during this time. An example is dambe (traditional boxing), Kokawa (Traditional wrestling), among others.

A review of the research activities of Nigerian physical and health educators showed that serious research work did not start in physical and health education in Nigeria until the late sixties and early seventies. Most of the early research works in these fields were mainly on the history and administration of sports and physical education in Nigeria. Recently, physical and health educators in Nigeria have shifted to more scientific aspect of sports performance, physical fitness and healthful living.

The period between 1842 and 1882 in Nigeria witnessed the introduction of western literary education by missionaries. Christian missionaries came from different churches and established educational institutions; however there was no uniform curriculum of studies and physical training had no place in the school curriculum (Ladani, 1988). Thereafter, Nigeria came into existence as a nation in 1914 through the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates and became fully (Continue Reading here)