Physical Education in Indian Schools: An Exploratory Study of School Sports Provision and Basketball Performance Using Mathematics and Python

This exploratory study examines physical education provision in selected Indian schools and explores basketball performance through observations and descriptive quantitative analysis. The study considers reported physical education schedules, sports opportunities, and observations of basketball players' shooting performance. Numerical summaries, percentages, and graphical representations are used to organise and present the available information. The findings provide an initial account of the observations collected. However, the study has limitations, including a small number of schools, a limited basketball sample, and subjective performance classifications. The available data do not establish a causal relationship between athletic ability, physical education provision, and basketball shooting performance. The findings should therefore be interpreted as exploratory rather than representative of all Indian schools or basketball players. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate an independent application of quantitative reasoning to questions involving school physical education and sports performance, while identifying opportunities for more systematic research in the future.