Curriculum reforms and marginalisation of physical education: teachers’ perspectives on the new common core program in Ghana

Ghana’s Common Core Program (CCP) places competency development at the centre of junior high school education, including Physical Education and Health. This qualitative study examined how 30 physical education teachers across 15 public junior high schools interpreted and enacted the reform. We analysed semi-structured interviews using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes organised the findings: support for the reform alongside difficulty translating competencies into PE pedagogy; material conditions that restricted curriculum enactment; limited PE-specific professional learning; and assessment hierarchies that sustained PE’s marginal status. The findings show a gap between intended and enacted curriculum. Teachers reconstructed curriculum expectations around available space, equipment, time, class size, professional support and school accountability priorities. The study argues that curriculum reform in PE requires alignment among policy purposes, pedagogical support, material provision and assessment arrangements. Ghana’s experience offers a social and institutional account of how competency-based HPE reform is shaped in everyday school practice.