HC Deb 21 February 1995 vol 255 cc140-1
2. Mr. Cyril D. Townsend

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what new initiatives she has to encourage compulsory sport within schools.

Mrs. Gillian Shepherd

The revised national curriculum for physical education places much greater emphasis on team games and competitive sport.

Mr. Townsend

Does my right hon. Friend agree with Sir Roger Bannister that we have become a nation of the contentedly unfit? Does she also agree that an element of compulsion is essential if children are to take sport seriously? What is the Department's policy on teaching cricket in schools, following our dismal and dreary performance down under?

Mrs. Shephard

I am probably one of the discontentedly unfit. My hon. Friend certainly speaks for himself. We think that competitive and team games are a very important part of a balanced PE curriculum. It will perhaps be of some comfort to my hon. Friend to learn that, in future, 14 to 16-year-olds will have to engage in two activities in the PE curriculum, one of which must be a competitive game. No doubt many of them will wish to take cricket.

Mr. Kilfoyle

How does that rhetoric square with the sales of local authority playing fields, which have been forced by the persistent cuts that the Government have made in local authority funding? What does she say also to the Dartford West high school for girls, which has had its playing fields asset-stripped and given to neighbouring grant-maintained schools for their sole use, resulting in the exclusion of 750 young girls in Dartford?

Mrs. Shephard

I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman is among the ranks of the contentedly unfit.

Mr. Kilfoyle

I was once a PE teacher.

Mrs. Shephard

The hon. Gentlemen claims that he was once a PE teacher. I am glad to hear it. He should therefore know that regulations are in place which define the amount of playing fields that schools should have. They cannot be sold if the effect would be to reduce the area below the required minimum.

Mr. Hawkins

Does my right hon. Friend agree that, if children were encouraged to take part in compulsory sport, as Conservative Members believe should be the case, they would take a serious interest in the support of our national teams and not indulge in the kind of mindless violence that we saw so appallingly exhibited in Dublin last week?

Mrs. Shephard

It is to be hoped that that might be so. Certainly, taking part in competitive and team games helps to teach young people to work together as a team, how to co-operate and how to strive towards a common goal.