Background
UNESCO’s recent Quality Physical Education Guidelines for policymakers unequivocally affirms that sustainable development begins with safe, healthy and well-educated children. The recent COVID-19 pandemic with its multiple lockdowns, namely at the school and community levels, impaired children of their liberty to play freely and participate in sports with negative implications on their heathy growth and development because they were confined to their homes.
The new pandemic added unforeseen challenges to children, including stressful environments, school closures, reduced social life and physical activities, as well as the unprecedented negative socioeconomic impacts. These novel environmental restrictions affected learning capacities and adaptive behaviours, with potential effects on lifelong physical and mental health.
As the impact of COVID-19 lessens, quick and assertive responses from schools are crucial to reduce its negative impacts during the years 2021 and 2022. Furthermore, questions on how children’s motor development unfolds within the joint new effects of their school contexts, familial ambiance and environmental settings remain unanswered.
The proposed novel project is imbibed in Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological holistic theory of human development which considers children’s life trajectories as dynamic systems based on individual-environmental interactions.