Airbrushing the tens of thousands of state school teachers who spend hours of their time on sports activities out of the national picture is “mean, unjust and reveals a class prejudice that should have died out with the Romanovs,” writes
TES editor, Gerard Kelly.
Kelly rightly praises all British Olympians whose inspirational success has received adulation but describes as “appalling” that some politicians spewed out “the same tired myths about unsporting teaching.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t just politicians – media commentators jumped on the bandwagon to take pot-shots at sport in state schools. Even Murdoch tweeted an ignorant comment about how the Chinese were topping the Olympic league tables while “US and UK mainly teach competitive sport a bad thing.”
Really? Are our politicians and their media supporters so blinkered and boorish that they ignore the reports which appear continually in local papers about sporting competitions between schools? On an
earlier thread I pointed out praiseworthy work done in local schools in one small part of Lincolnshire and Rutland in just one week. Several of these were competitive sporting events including the Leicestershire Primary Cross Country League championships. Activities like these take place nationally but politicians and their press chums prefer to overlook them just as they snub the
state school teachers who inspired Mo Farah, Bradley Wiggins and Jessica Ennis.
But how supportive is the Government of sport in state schools? It was Michael Gove who scrapped the annual school sport survey which found out the kinds of sport on offer and how many pupils were taking part. It was Michael Gove who said schools did not have to adhere to targets brought in by the previous Labour Government which required five hours of sport a week. Instead he decided to “trust teachers and parents” to decide how much sport pupils should do. It was Michael Gove who cut funding for Schools Sports Partnerships which organized inter-school competitions. And it was under Tory governments that the bulk of the now-lost schools fields were sold.
Instead of sneering at sport in state schools, TES editor Kelly says if the Government wants state schools to emulate the success of independents then it should provide cash. I would add that mean-minded politicians and hacks should celebrate all sporting achievements not just those of a select few. They should remember that sporting excellence depends on many things: aptitude, opportunity, support and, above all, dedication and sheer hard work from the athletes themselves. The achievement of these dedicated young people should not be high-jacked to score petty political points.
Comments
Well I never did. I just wish Michael Gove didn't either.
The PM and many of his supporters haven't quite grasped the importance of sport in schools - it's not just about nurturing athletes capable of winning Olympic gold. It's more to do with keeping fit and exercising. This can be achieved by dance as well as by charging around a muddy field in the depth of winter. And according to the PM's logic non-competitive activities such as yoga, t'ai chi, aerobics and so on would have no place in the curriculum.
It's easy for the PM and his rival Boris to talk about two hours of compulsory (competitive) sport a day because they went to boarding schools where the staff have to find something for their pupils to do when other children are with their families.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/10/david-cameron-defends-indian-...
Perhaps all politicians and commentators who make ill-informed remarks about schools, young people and sport should take the course.
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/olympics-2012
FactCheck concluded that the PM’s “been a little disingenuous” when he claimed that sport is still compulsory in schools because academies can opt-out of the national curriculum. And a Freedom of Information request showed that since Gove reduced school sports partnerships, sports provision in schools has declined.
http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-how-good-a-sport-is-the-pm...
FullFact pointed out that the number of hours of curriculum PE didn’t necessarily reflect the number of hours actually doing sport and that the activities might not be competitive. FullFact concluded, “So even given the high levels of sports participation evident from the sports survey, we can't say for certain how exactly the pupils' time would have been spent.”
Unfortunately, Gove has scrapped the annual school sports survey so it will no longer be possible to find out how much time children spend on sport.
It looks as if the Coalition has scored several own goals regarding sport in state schools.
http://fullfact.org/factchecks/did_number_young_people_two_hours_sport_p...
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