Britain has 7,000 fewer PE teachers than when London hosted the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, MPs have been told, while 30% of children are now doing less than 30 minutes of any physical activity, including walking, a day.
The shocking figures were spelt out in the first session of the digital culture, media and sport committee’s ongoing inquiry into the challenges provision of sport for children and young people – and what can be done to arrest the decline in activity levels.
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The chair of the committee, Dame Caroline Dinenage pointed out that there were 41,000 fewer hours of PE taught in the last academic year compared to 2011-12. And children also now have, on average, 20 minutes less play time at school than they did 30 years ago.
Ali Oliver, CEO of the Youth Sport Trust charity, told MPs that the decrease in activity levels would have consequences “for all manner of things” including a child’s cognitive development and long-term health, as she called on PE to be made a core subject in schools.
“If physical education was a core subject, it would have higher status,” she said. “It would bring with it a level of accountability which would drive up standards and commitment. We would understand whether our children are developing at the right level.
“And it would undoubtedly have a huge impact on teacher training, which is a problem at the moment. Our primary classroom teachers who deliver PE have, on average, four to six hours of training in PE which is woefully inadequate.”
The MPs also heard from former Olympic sprinter and Gladiators star Montell Douglas, who called on physical literacy to be given a similar status in schools to maths and English literacy.
“As a coach, I want to see young people have the basic physical literacy of being able to catch a ball at a certain age – in the same way you’d expect someone to be able to read at a certain age,” she said. “It can be quite damning if they say they’re not reading at this level in school. Why do we not attribute the same thing to physical literacy and PE?”
Douglas said that more needed to be done to promote sport and movement as a “passion and a lifelong skill” which could help transform the lives of children and young adults for the better. “That’s the winning formula”, she added.
Meanwhile another Olympian, the swimmer Anna Hopkin, who won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games as part of the mixed 4x100m medley relay team, told MPs that schools should not shy away from the competitive side of sport.
“I remember towards the end of my primary school career, sports day became a points system, because they were concerned about kids experiencing failure and getting put off. I understand that point of view. But learning how to deal with success and failure at a young age is really important. So is allowing kids the opportunity to experience competition, but in a supportive environment.”
