§ Lord Moynihanasked Her Majesty's Government:
What effect the number of specialist physical education teachers will have on the ability of the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Culture. Media and Sport to achieve their targets for increasing access to high quality physical education and school sport. [HL1919]
§ Baroness Ashton of UphollandSpecialist physical education (PE) teachers have a crucial role to play in the delivery of high quality PE and school sport for our young people. The Government's PE, school sport and club links strategy complements and runs alongside the school workforce reform agenda. The Department for Education and Skills has secured 300 additional initial teacher training places in PE for the three years from 2003–04. This, along with healthy levels of PE teacher recruitment and retention, will ensure that sufficient trained specialist PE teachers are available to help deliver the Government's commitment to increase access to high quality PE and school sport.