ABSTRACT
There are two basic questions to be answered in this chapter under the ‘why’ question. Firstly, what are the purposes and uses of assessment in PE? This is the fundamental question of ‘why assess at all?’ and the answers will have a lot in common with other subjects. But these purposes always existed, so, secondly, why did PE became involved in the formal assessment system such as examinations only in recent years and after it was generally and invariably thought as unnecessary and undesirable to do so? I will deal with the second question first.
