Legal liability in the administration of sports and physical education programmes in Nigeria schools

Abstract

Sport administrators, sport coaches and physical educators in schools are expected to be well grounded in their profession. They are expected to work within their limit and minimize occurrence of accidents and severity of injuries if not out rightly eliminate it in physical education and sport settings. More than any other subject in the school curriculum, physical education and sport programmes expose students to risky situations, which sometimes result in accidents and injuries. These may sometimes result in litigations against the physical education teacher or the school authority, and if found guilty, a teacher may pay heavy damages for his negligence and may also lose his job. School authority may also be found to be vicariously liable with the burden of payment of heavy compensation. This paper presents an exposition of legal issues in the administration of physical education and sports in Nigeria schools. While this paper is not attempting to make an attorney out of a physical educator or sport administrator, the paper adopted a theoretical approach to explaining the need to be conscious of what is legally expected of a professional physical educator or a sport coach because parents and students in Nigeria are becoming more legalistic nowadays. This paper explains the roles of professionals in the field of sports and physical education in preventing accidents and injuries, so as to reduce situations that can lead to litigation. The paper also tries to awaken the consciousness of the professionals on the defenses they can put up in case of any litigation emanating from the discharge of their duties and the expected standards of care, which a physical educator must demonstrate in a physical education lesson or during sport outing.