What are the latest figures available for the average hours of physical education per week received by pupils in (a) primary schools, (b) s…

Information on the average hours of physical education received by pupils in primary schools is not collected centrally. However, in the 5-14 curriculum (covering P1-S2), national guidelines recommend that education authorities and schools have a minimum time allocation of 15% for the expressive arts (including physical education). In addition, schools have a 20% flexibility factor in designing the curriculum and may devote some of this time to physical education.For secondary schools, the latest information available is from a survey of the secondary school curriculum carried out in 1997. The survey data relates to publicly funded secondary schools and indicates that approximately 90 minutes of physical education per week is received by S1 and S2 pupils and 115 minutes per week by S3 and S4 pupils. Information on the average hours of physical education received by S5 and S6 pupils is not available from the survey. However, 63% of pupils in S5 and 39% of pupils in S6 participated in National Certificate or Higher courses in physical education.