Physical and Health Education Teachers’ Job Demands and Resources, in Exercise Programming for Fitness and Wellness of School Children in Nigeria

Teachers of Physical and Health Education (PHE) have a mission of improving school children’s physical fitness and wellness by implementing well-structured physical activity (exercise) programmes for improving all the dimensions of wellness. Programming (designing and implementing programmes) for physical fitness and wellness exerts certain physiological and/or psychological costs known as job demands. Teachers should possess adequate resources for meeting with the costs of programming for physical fitness and wellness of school children in accordance with the ‘Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model’ in order to avoid the development of serious stress, with its attendant debilitating ill- health. The resources needed by teachers in programming for physical fitness and wellness of school children were identified in this paper to include being physically fit and well-coordinated, patient, approachable and enthusiastic, excellent in oral communication skills, possession of good sense of rhythm, and the ability to motivate students, among others. It is concluded that there is need for a research to determine the extent to which PHE teachers are in possession of these resources for meeting with the job demands of programming for physical fitness and wellness of school children. Such a research should reveal how to make PHE teachers more efficient in programming for physical fitness and wellness of school children, without developing any serious stress that is capable of eliciting debilitating ill health.