Miriam Pascoal Ramos
1992The current study is about school physical education and the problems that involve its classes. This research aims, mainly, to find out the real causes for the students poor, attendence to the physical education classes at the public secondary school (high schools) in Campinas - SP. In order to reach this aim, a combination of documental, bibliographical, and exploratory research was chosen to be developed; so that the causes to the physical education classes absences could be described considering the students and teachers perception, who have taken part of this processoThe instrument used to obtain students and teachers perception data was a questionnaire. The sample consisted of 1303 students chosen at random and all physical education teachers who were currently working at secondary schools in the year that this research was developed. The data was analysed through statistics and computer work. The result of this study indicates a high rate of absences in the physical education classes in the secondary schools distributed in four Education Departments in Campinas, that is, only 41.6%of the students reported that they attend classes regularly. The absences are officially determined by legal reasons: work, iIIness,age, offspring, army service,whichseemingly hide other concealed reasons. Within the hidden reasons are school structural problems and methodological/didatical matters, which involve the school pedagogical part, that is, the teachers attitudes and personality