Physical Fitness Degradation of the Elementary School Students: A Case on Gorontalo City, Indonesia

Abstract

The ongoing debates on physical literacy in the realm of public physical fitness (PF) in Indonesian literature has resulted in various surprising but exciting facts. However, most of the existing studies on PF have generally pivoted around the quantitative tradition. With this reality in mind, qualitatively empirical study scrutinizing the actual factors veiled within the current state of PF of the society, the primary school students, in particular, remains somewhat of a mystery, given far too little attention has been paid to the investigation of such an inquiry in the Indonesian context. The present study, therefore, was initiated to address this gap. As a manifestation of the past evaluative research on the physical literacy of Elementary School (ES) students in Gorontalo City, this qualitative case study specifically sought to determine the causal factors underlying the PF degradation in ES students in Gorontalo City. As many as 26 informants consisting of 20 ES physical education teachers and six school principals were selected as the research participants. The research data were collected using structured interviews and documents. The findings of this study revealed four main factors lying behind the PF degradation of ES students in Gorontalo City. These four causal factors are: 1) the disparity of the teaching and learning of physical education within the thematic system of the 2013 curriculum, 2) the loss of open spaces in the schools due to the misinterpretation of the school administrators about the Adiwiyata program launched by the government, 3) the booming presence of Smartphones amongst students, which somehow brings about a tendency for students to spend more time sitting without making any significant movements, and 4) the poor implementation of legal product pertaining to sports which include the National Sports Law No. 3 of 2005, 2 Presidential Instructions and 2 Regulations of the Minister of Youth and Sports as proclaimed by the government.