ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to assess the physical fitness status of public and private junior secondary school students in Katsina State. An Ex-post facto research design was used for this study. Two hundred and forty (240) junior secondary school students were selected through random sampling by dip, pick, record and return method. The test items included push up, sit up, sit and reach, skin fold measurement and twelve minutes run/walk tests. These were used to determine muscular strength, muscular endurance, trunk flexibility, body fat percent, and cardio-respiratory endurance. The data collected were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha levels The data of the study were subjected to descriptive statistic of Mean and Standard deviation then a further analysis using independent t-test was used to analyzed differences in treatment between public and private junior secondary school students and their physical fitness status. The result of the study indicated that students from the two types of secondary schools (public and private) did not differ significantly in their muscular endurance with the observed t-value of 1.058 and observed significant level of 0.291. It also revealed that students of public secondary schools were significantly higher in their muscular strength than students from private secondary schools involved in the study with observed t-value of 4.488 compared with 1.96 which stands for the critical value. Similarly it indicated that public secondary school students were significantly higher in their flexibility measured with sit and reach than students from private secondary schools the observed t-value (2.884) for the aggregate comparison between the private and public schools, obtained in the test is higher than the critical value of 1.96.The findings also revealed that students from public secondary schools have higher body fat percent than students from the private secondary schools. The result revealed that the two groups are significantly different in their body fat percent. But among those of the public school no significance difference was observed. The aggregate means were however significantly different between the private and public schools. This is indicated by observed t-value of 2.292 compared to the critical value equivalent of 1.96. The difference is in favor of males against female students. Equally the result revealed that the two groups (private and public secondary school students) were significantly different in their cardio-respiratory endurance. The observed t-value 2.525 and critical value of 1.96. Thus it is recommended that government should reintroduce sport competitions in all secondary schools and participation made compulsory as this will improve the physical fitness status of the students and similar study should be carried out in senior secondary schools and other educational levels within the state and the country at large.