CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Sports started with the beginning of life and it is used for different purposes in time. Sports are the activities involving power and skills, competition, strategy, and (or) chance, and engaged in for the enjoyment, satisfaction and (or) personal gain (such as income) of the participant, and (or) others (e.g., spectators), including organized and recreational sports, as well as sports as entertainment (Öcal, 2006). Sports play very important roles in educational institutions in virtually all parts of the world, and the contribution of sports to the educational process in institutions cannot be overemphasized (Ongong’a, Okwara, & Okello, 2010). Engagement in school sports programmes is supposed to promote boys’ and girls’ moral functioning, self-discipline, ability to work with others, and capacity to compete and eectively cope with success as well as failure (Mahoney, Eccles, & Larson, 2005). There are those who argue for reduction of opportunities for physical activity or sports within a youngster’s day (particularly during her/his school day) because the academic progress of girls and boys is reduced when children or adolescents spend more time in sporting activities (Lindner, 1999; Shephard, 1997). Evidence suggests that sports participation does not necessarily diminish academic performance and is sometimes associated with greater academic achievement or performance (Lindner, 1999; Shephard, 1997). It has also been suggested that any positive interdependence between sports or physical activity engagement and academic accomplishment is probably as a result of the indirect eects of participation on young people’s self esteem and physical health (Barnett, Smoll, & Smith, 1992; Tremblay, Inman, & Williams, 2000; Whitehead & Corbin, 1997). The word academic has to do with school or college studies or learning, in other words it designates the intellectual aspect of education particularly the final subjects that deal with organized knowledge (Hornby, 1991). Academic performance refers to the performance that falls within a specified standard. The specified standard is usually called a pass mark and the pass mark is a score above average which students are considered having passed and below which students are considered having failed (Tope, 2011). Academic performance has been described as the scholastic standing of a student at a given moment. This scholastic standing could be explained in terms of the grades obtained in a course or groups of courses (Adeyemi, 2011).
STATEMENT OF THE GENERAL PROBLEM
Today’s harsh economic condition is aecting funding for schools especially primary schools, resulting in some schools across Nigeria, opting to cut school sports in order to save cost. Arguments used to justify such cuts in school sports include; it does not adequately benefit all students, it is costly to organise and maintain (Schneider, 2010), it is a hindrance to academic performance and a waste of students’ precious time (Rintaugu, 2012). In Nigeria, it has been observed that some stakeholders have denied primary school pupils the opportunity of participating in organized school sports activities on the excuse that it reduces academic work in schools (Arthur-Norman, 2010), or it affects students’ academic performance (Adzaku, 2012). In an era where academic grades and performances supersede every other consideration in our educational institutions, there is need to provide empirical evidence to show whether participation in school sports affects academic performance positively or negatively. Providing such evidence to both relevant stakeholders and policy makers is important because too many educational policy decisions and discussions occur in the absence of empirical evidence (Bowen & Green, 2013). Most studies relating to effects of sports participation on academic performance have been carried out in America and Europe (Bowen & Green, 2013; Kelepolo, 2011; Ludwig, 2010; Schneider, 2010; Tower, 2008; Zeiser, 2008; Larson, Hansen & Moneta, 2006; Olson, 2006; Morgan, 2005; O’Dea, 1994; Holland & Andre, 1987), with very little done in a country like Ghana, giving its unique type and level of educational system. To this researcher, Adzaku (2012) and Arthur-Norman (2010) are the only studies carried out in Ghana relating to effects of sports participation on academic performance.
