Schools Urged To Battle Obesity
Ed Balls is urging teachers to do more to get the hardcore non-exercising pupils in England back in the school Gym. He also stated that parents needed to know at an early stage if there was a problem and pledged to do everything in his power to ensure that young people were growing up fit and healthy.
The government says a target to get 85% of young people doing at least two hours of sport a week by 2008 has been met already. However, ministers are still warning that half the UK population may be obese in 25years’ time. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is also highlighting his £100m campaign to get schools offering young people five hours of sport a week.
The official 2006-07 School Sport Survey found that 86% of pupils in 21,700 maintained schools in England were doing at least two hours of physical education or school sport a week. The variety of sports was on the increase with an average of 21.7 different ones being offered. These ranged from mountaineering to kabbadi, while 31% of schools were offering golf, 42% cycling and 29% canoeing.
Schools have also improved at spotting sporting excellence, with the share of children registered as gifted and talented up from 3% in 2003-04 to 7% in 2006-07.
14th Oct 2007
