Overall movement skills have remained unchanged
Students’ overall movement skills were measured using 12 different exercises. The emphasis was on ‘learning to move’ and ‘organising movement’, such as assisting others or making agreements. The study shows that students’ overall movement skills in 2023 were comparable to those in 2016. There are some small differences for individual exercises: students are now slightly less proficient at aiming and running, and slightly better at balancing and long jumping. The exercises focused on strength, speed and endurance show that Dutch children meet European standards at the end of primary education.
Not all objectives receive equal attention
On average, children receive 90 minutes of physical education per week, usually taught by a specialist teacher. Ninety per cent of schools have a specialist physical education teacher, compared with 57% in the previous survey. There is also often cooperation with extracurricular partners, such as sports clubs. Not everything receives equal attention during lessons. In ‘learning to move’, relatively frequent attention is paid to ball games and jumping exercises. Moving to music is only rarely a lesson objective. For ‘organising movement’, ‘acting according to agreed rules’ is relatively often addressed, while ‘providing assistance during physical activities’ receives almost no attention.
Many children play sports outside school, but also spend a lot of time on screens
More than three quarters of students participate in club sports, often football, hockey or volleyball. Many students do this three times a week. More than a third of students take part in extracurricular sports activities through their school. Three quarters of children also exercise regularly in their neighbourhood or on the street: they skate or play football, for example. At the same time, almost half of the students say that they play games on a mobile phone, computer or tablet for 3 hours or more per day. Half do this for 1 to 2 hours per day. This has increased compared with the previous survey.
Children enjoy physical education lessons and consider them important. More than two thirds of students feel that they are able to perform the exercises they are required to do. Teachers consider themselves very well informed about the subject matter of physical education. They consider themselves less competent when it comes to applying the most recent insights or developments in their lessons. They also consider a safe and motivating learning environment very important.
Physical activity and sport are important for the entire school
Professionals who reflected on the survey recommend making use of the added value of the Physical Activity and Sport learning area throughout education. This learning area contributes to students’ broad development: you learn how to interact with your body and with one another. This is consistent with the citizenship education task assigned to schools. The experts see an important role for the specialist teacher as an ambassador for physical activity both inside and outside the school. This includes the school playground and cooperation with extracurricular activities. More than is currently the case, school leaders can include ‘physical activity’ in the school’s vision and be involved in the learning area. This ensures that physical education is about more than just physical education lessons and that specialist teachers become more integrated into the team, even if they sometimes work at several schools.
National survey
National surveys are conducted on behalf of the National Education Knowledge Institute under the direction of the Dutch Inspectorate of Education. These studies provide an overview of student performance and the teaching and learning process. In doing so, they contribute to the dialogue about the content, quality and level of education.
In 2016–2017, a survey on physical education was conducted in mainstream and special primary education. In the new core objectives, this learning area is called Physical Activity and Sport. The Physical Activity and Sport survey 2023–2024 was conducted by a consortium of researchers from GION education/research, Cito, the Movement Sciences department of UMCG, Hanze, Windesheim, HAN University of Applied Sciences, Fontys, The Hague University of Applied Sciences and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.