As shown by the first measurement of physical education in secondary education, VWO students receive exactly the number of lessons prescribed by the national standard, with 2 lesson hours per week (see the 2014 inspectorate policy guideline). HAVO students are slightly below this level (an average of 2.16 hours per week instead of 2.2 hours). The number of lessons for VMBO BBL and KBL is exactly in line with the national standard at 2.5 hours per week, but the theoretical/mixed learning pathway (TL/GL), by contrast, is somewhat behind (an average of 2.39 instead of 2.5 lesson hours per week). This was also the case in 2014.
VMBO students are also less active in sports outside school: just over three quarters of pupils say they participate in sports every week (78%). VMBO pupils (71%) participate in sports considerably less than VWO pupils (87%).
KVLO considers the decline in the number of lesson hours in VMBO TL/GL concerning and wants to work with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the education inspectorate to examine the causes and possible solutions. This is all the more important because heads of physical education departments across the board indicate that lesson time has decreased somewhat in recent years, especially in the first years of secondary education. On the other hand, just as in 2014, secondary schools still scheduled the most time in the first year in 2018, an average of 145 minutes (3 lessons of almost 50 minutes) per week. Weekly lesson time decreases in the subsequent years to 96 minutes (2 lessons of almost 50 minutes) in the fourth year.
School leaders very satisfied with the quality of physical education
School leaders at secondary schools are generally very satisfied with the quality of physical education. They rate it as well above satisfactory (a score of 7.9), slightly higher than the subject teachers (a score of 7.6). These scores are the same as those in 2014.
In addition to physical education lessons, more schools than in 2014 offer supplementary lessons for interested pupils in the form of sports classes and elective/examination subjects. HAVO pupils make relatively the most use of these, but in total they account for less than 10 percent of all pupils. Otherwise, the development of extracurricular physical activity and school sports in secondary education appears to have come to a standstill. At a significant proportion of schools, this provision is limited to the annual sports day.
Sports clinics and break-time activities are relatively often offered monthly, but this happens at only one in five schools.