Factors Influencing the Implementation Level of Physical Education in Selangor Primary Schools

Each school in Malaysia observes a uniform Physical Education curriculum (PE) through the use of standard textbooks and given standardised teaching and learning times. However, reports on PE implementation in schools shows different levels of implementation of the PE curriculum. To determine the levels and reasons for these differences, this study examines the level of PE implementation in primary schools in Selangor based on five factors assessed using the Standard Kualiti Pendidikan Malaysia 2010 (SKPM 2010). A total of 111 primary Head of Physical Education Panel in the selected schools in Selangor participated in answering the questionnaire. Results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant differences for each factor (leadership and vision p = .0001; p = .0001 organisational management, curriculum, co-curricular and sports, and student welfare p = .0001; p = teaching and learning. 0001; student producibility p = .0001) between schools based on the level of implementation of PE. Specifically, post-hoc analysis (Bonferroni) showed no significant difference in the student producibility irrespective of PE implementation. However, it showed that high levels of performance for each factor influenced high levels of PE implementation.


Introduction
Physical Education Curriculum (PE) is a core subject taught in primary and secondary schools in Malaysia. Each school uses a standard curriculum prepared by the Curriculum Development Centre, Ministry of Education (MOE) and the use of textbooks supplied by the Unit Textbook, KPM. The standard allocated time for physical education is 40 minutes per session for high schools and 30 minutes per session for primary schools. PE curriculum is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is upto-date with current trends. PE implementation in schools is designed to produce well-rounded education including in the domains of psychomotor, cognitive and affective.
However, curriculum improvements alone are not sufficient. Wee (2008) argued that a successful PE program at school requires effective management. Although the characteristics of the PE program in Malaysia are the same, its success depends, in part on the use of good resources and facilities to effectively achieve the objectives of the PE curriculum, as described in Figure 1. Reports regarding the overall implementation of PE in Malaysia remains low (Wee, 2002;Salim, Mahmood, & Ahmad, 2018). Syed Kamaruzaman and Julismah (2010) explained that the level of implementation of PE simply refers to providing the teaching materials, resources, tools, and facilities to pursue the PE curriculum, whereas the evaluation of its efficacy refers to an examination of how the PE curriculum is executed. Ministry of Education (2001) reported that PE teachers in Kelantan and Sabah did not observe the daily lesson plans or update their curriculum. Daily lesson plans were not carefully planned, and the PE class was not monitored and student PE performance was not assessed. The Pahang State Education Department found that throughout all state schools PE was poorly executed and failed to observe the Annual Education Plan in the design of their daily lesson plans. As many as 95% of all teachers failed to provide written notes, exercises, or mid and end term examinations. The situation became critical when PE was being taught by non-qualified teachers.
The objective of PE Curriculum • Improve and maintain health based on fitness • Mastering basic movements and games • Exercise and physical activity as a daily routine • Apply knowledge of health and safety while participating in various physical activities • Build character and self-discipline • Make wise decisions in life To ensure quality education in Malaysia, the Inspectorate Unit, Ministry of Education uses the Standard Kualiti Pendidikan Malaysia 2010 (SKPM 2010) to assess how five aspects contribute to the quality of education. Referring to Ministry of Education (2010), there are five standards that determine the quality of education. These include leadership, administrative management, organisational management that covers the needs of the staff and facilities, curriculum management, planning and implementation process of teaching and learning, and student producibility. Each of these standards are interrelated and play an important role toward ensuring a high level of implementation to best achieve the curriculum. Figure 2 illustrates how these aspects influence the level of implementation of physical education in schools. The conceptual model is constructed based on the concept of valuation of SKPM 2010 and PJ curriculum objectives.

Factors
Physical education should encourage pupils to acquire knowledge, skills, and values of personal development through planned physical activity. Activities should be suited to the needs and characteristics of students and stimulate them towards a healthier lifestyle. To carry out these activities, the PE teacher is instrumental in ensuring the proper implementation of PE. Graham (2008) added that other qualified instructors, teaching time allocation and achievement of objectives should be suited to the task, and teaching environments such as class size and the ratio of the equipment and facilities provided should be sufficient. As such, non-conducive school environments and poor support for PE affected the implementation of the curriculum.
Referring to previous studies, there are various factors that affect the implementation of PE in schools. PE is a subject that is based on practices, values, and beliefs on how to live a healthy and active life. To ensure that the PE is successful, teachers play a very important role. According to Mitchell and Earls (1987) a teacher must master the core knowledge for implementing an effective learning process. A successful teacher is one who is able to deliver the learning content towards the attainment of the objectives and make the learning environment attractive and motivational (Christensen & Knezek, 1996;Sarri et al., 2013). In addition, effective teaching is accompanied by a sound pedagogy such as the ability to control a class, use of tools and optimal facilities will provide a

OBJECTIVE OF PE CURRICULUM
1. Improving and maintaining health and fitness 2. Mastering basic skills and games 3. Doing exercise and physical activity as a daily routine 4. Applying knowledge of health and safety while participating in various physical activities 5. Developing character and selfdiscipline 6. Make wise decisions in life Organisational Management

Learning and Teaching
Curriculum Management Student Producibility more positive impact on the achievement of learning objectives (Julismah, 2006). Conversely, poor teacher content knowledge has implications for teaching and learning PE such as low student participation, less mastery among students, students who do not produce quality work, unable to plan and deliver effective teaching sessions, ineffective presentation and communication skills, and are unable to carry out assessments efficiently.
Students need quality instruction and experience of using tools (Wall, Rudisell, Goodway, & Parish, 2004). To this end, teachers must possess and demonstrate knowledge and skills in conducting such activities. Furthermore, the allocated time for PE is short, ranging from 30 to 40 minutes per session. Thus, teacher competence in managing the limited time is important. The findings by Mitchell and Earls (1987); Al Shbail (2018) shows the overall time allocated to physical education is only 27% for content related subjects, while 75% is wasted on things like waiting and administrating pupils. With these statistics, a PE class of 40 minutes on average has an estimated 10 minutes for content delivery. A review by (Julismah, 2006)found that PE teacher content knowledge is at a moderate level. Given that the content delivery is important in ensuring the effectiveness of the PE program, if this situation persists and remedial actions are not taken, PE education in school will fail compared to other subjects.
Administrators' attitude also plays a role in the achievement of the PE objectives in schools. However, most school administrators focus on academic achievement in order to maintain the status of the school so as not to be categorised as a low-performing schools (achieving less than a 60% pass rate in exams organized by the Ministry of Education). As such, PE programs and activities are not emphasised. This causes imbalances in the implementation of educational programs, particularly PE. In terms of continuum, PE was ranked last as it was not considered an academic subject (Corbin & Noble, 1980). If teachers and administrators encourage students and provide support for the PE curriculum similar to their support for other subjects, this will enhance the achievements in PE. Kohl III and Cook (2013) argue that the PE program can be more affective and significantly add to the growth and physical maturity of pupils with a high level of organizational leadership as practiced in some schools in the United States. In such schools, the teachers showed a keen interest in PE students with ways to diversify the activities that students can choose so that they may choose their preferred activity. Luke and Cope (1994) reviewed the perceptions of male and female students in secondary schools on the subjects of Physical Education and Health and found that 64% are not interested in PE and Health because the implementation of the program is unattractive, 42% lacked interest in sports, 40% did not consider it enjoyable, and lack of interest of the teachers (39%). This illustrates that these elements are important in PE and must be injected in the process of teaching and learning. Creativity is a necessary aspect of a PE teacher because in the process of teaching sports, diversity of creative delivery methods must be applied to ensure that there is an element of fun in physical activity while at the same time delivering meaningful content to achieve the teaching objectives.
The issue of lack of equipment and facilities for teaching and learning purposes in PE also contributed to the poor implementation of PE. Ministry of Education (2008) reported that 98.9% of schools do not allocate the budget granted to purchase and rehabilitate sports equipment and teaching aids for PE (Shabeshan & Jilld, 1998). This causes resource constraints for PE. It is more troubling when the tools and facilities that are no longer appropriate and insecure continue to be used.
Since PE implementation in schools is managed by the school management, it is not surprising that there is poor implementation of PE despite being a core subject (Syed Kamaruzaman & Julismah, 2010). Implementation of PE programs in schools in Malaysia varies depending on the readiness factors such as equipment and sports facilities, high skilled teaching, well planned learning and teaching processes, higher student engagement, status of PE as a subject, and financial support. This leads to question the level of implementation of PE in schools in Malaysia and the achievement of its objectives in developing gross motor skills of children. Therefore, a preliminary study was conducted with the purpose of measuring the level of PE implementation in primary schools in Selangor and compare the factors that affect the implementation of school-based PE according to the level of implementation.

Methodology
To assess the level of PE implementation in schools, 111 primary school teachers on the PE committee in Selangor were selected through random sampling to answer a questionnaire on Standard Kualiti Pendidikan Malaysia 2010 (SKPM 2010) by the Inspectorate Unit of the Ministry of Education that focuses on the subject of PE (r = .96). This questionnaire assesses five aspects of education quality standards; 1) Standard 1: Leadership and Vision, 2) Standard 2: Organisational Management, 3) Standard 3: Curriculum Management, Co-curricular and Sports and Welfare, 4) Standard 4: Learning and Teaching and 5) Standard 5: Student Producibility. The scores provide an overview of the implementation process of education at the school and is categorised into three stages: a score between 0 to 39 is categorised as low, 40 to 79 moderate, and 80 to 100 high.

Findings
Based on descriptive analysis, the samples obtained from the 111 respondents, 94 showed a medium level of implementation (83.9%) while only 7 (6.3%) schools performed at a low level, and 10 (8.9%) at a high level.  Table 1shows the mean scores for each aspect measured to determine the level of PE implementation in schools. Aspects of leadership and vision for the high level of school performance showed the highest mean score (M = 5.25, SD = .47), followed by a moderate level of school performance (M = 4.32, SD = .89) and low levels of school performance (M = 2.75, SD = .43). For the aspects of organisational management, high-school level implementation also showed the highest mean score (M = 5.20, SD =. 33), followed by a moderate level of school performance (M = 4.36, SD = .68) and low levels of school performance (M = 2.79, SD = .25). The findings also showed high levels of school performance to obtain the highest mean score in three other aspects of management aspects of curriculum, Curriculum & Sports and Student Affairs, learning and teaching and student excellence (M = 13.5, SD = .2.37; M = 5.60, SD = .35; M = 28.11, SD = 3.51), followed by a moderate level of school performance (M = 13.5, SD = .1.94; M = 4.53, SD = .60; M = 13.96, SD = 7.73) and low levels of school performance (M = 8.75, SD = .1.94; M = 3.08, SD = .30; M = 8.49, SD = 3.83). This shows that every aspect of PE for high school levels is better than the middle and lower level schools.

Discussion
PE curriculum implementation is essentially based on the guidelines provided by the Ministry of Education. Education quality standards are also evaluated. PE teachers were seen as key factors in ensuring high PE implementation. Based on these findings, PE teacher placement in schools is inadequate due to the lack of qualified PE teachers (n = 605) compared to other qualified teachers (n = 398). The visible impact on the ability to deliver learning content for non-qualified is evident, as the findings by (Julismah, 2006) states that mastery in core teaching knowledge is an important aspect that needs to be there to teach. A teacher shortage is another reason why the administration assigned non-qualified teachers to teach PE.
Administrator also plays a major role in ensuring high PE implementation. The teacher needs to emphasise the importance of PE and value it similar to other subjects. The administrator should strive to ensure that the PE curriculum is properly pursued by assigning it its due budget and allocating proper resources so that activities can be carried out in accordance with the syllabus. The lack of resources for PE activities results in a general lack of enthusiasm among students for PE.
Based on the results of the above discussion, it can be concluded that each of the five aspects influence the level of PE implementation. This will naturally affect the level of achievement of the objectives of physical education as a whole, particularly in developing motor skills at an early stage fundamental to a healthy lifestyle. Failure to support the PE program will weaken student interest in physical activity, cause poor physical fitness, lead to poor self-confidence, and an increase of health problems (Brown, Walkley, & Holland, 2005). Therefore, it is proposed that a follow-up study is conducted to determine the effect of the level of achievement of the objectives of the PE implementation, especially in developing gross motor skills of children.