Sports Games Participation and Students’ Academic Performance in Rwanda: A Case Study of Gatsibo District

Abstract

The participation in sports for the learners effectively at school, contribute highly in the students’ performance where playing for the student reduce stress with refreshing their minds that can lead to more academic success. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to establish the relationship between sports participation and student’s academic performance in Rwanda. The study, worked descriptive research design which adopted both qualitative and quantitative approaches and correlative research designs. The participants of this study, was 400 obtained by using the combination of random and purposive sampling technique and the research instrument which were questionnaire survey and guided interview. The SPSS software was used to analyze the collected data. The results showed that the participation in sports games for the students can help them to earn more grades, complete home work effectively in different subjects. it was also noted that engagement of learners in sports increase their fitness. The findings of this study, showed that the mean was 1.38 which is very high mean, and its standard deviation is 1.77 means that all sports games were developed in secondary due to that mean which is very high, different teachers and students admired the sports games as main factors encouraged in their schools for academic performance in Rwanda.   The big number 80.79% of respondents accepted that the students who involves in sports games participate actively in Teaching/learning activities while the 19.21% of respondents disagreed with the statements. Sport games participation is highly positive correlated with students’ academic performance in secondary schools at r=0.879 as correlation coefficients. This study confirmed a strong positive relationship between sports games participation and students’ academic performance in Rwanda. Therefore, local leaders should create opportunities for understanding the needs, aspirations and frustrations of each staff members, parents and local leaders through mobilization to train all community about sports games towards students’ academic performance by training them on the role of sports in everyday life. The ministry of education should support the teachers, students, parents and the non-teaching staff to provide the all resources needed for sports to enhance the sports games in order to raise the academic performance in Rwanda. This is because sports have been seen to play a major role in improving students’ academic performance since it boasts the morale of young children to attend secondary schools

Keywords: Sport participation, Sport games & Playing, Academic Performance, Gatsibo District, Rwanda