| Allan Wilson:
I am delighted
to open the debate, which emphasises the importance that the Executive
places on sport in Scotland's schools. I am committed to making Scotland
a nation that provides opportunities for all to participate in sport and
that identifies and nurtures its sporting talent.
The debate is
primarily about sports in schools, but I would like to open it out and
consider physical activity in general. I am aware that sport switches some
young people off and that not everyone is attracted to competitive, team
or outdoor sports, but aerobics and dance can be very attractive options,
particularly to young, teenage girls.
That is recognised
by sport Scotland, which provides funding to Fitness Scotland and through
the TOP programme. We must provide a range of opportunities and encourage
more young people to become more active more often. To use the modern idiom,
a lifestyle that includes physical activity must be seen as cool and attractive.
Once that is achieved, increased participation in sport will follow as
night follows day.
The ultimate
aim is to develop good habits and practices in young people that will set
lifelong patterns of physical activity and produce the world champions
of tomorrow. An added benefit will be that the population will be healthier
in body and mind and less of a burden to the health service in old age.
All members should encourage others and strive to achieve that.
The Standards
in Scotland's Schools etc Act 2000 includes a duty on authorities to ensure
that education is directed to the development of the personality, talents
and mental and physical abilities of the child or young person so that
they achieve their full potential.
It is accepted
that young people and the rest of the population are not as active as they
should be—that has prompted us to set up the national physical activity
task force under the chairmanship of John Beattie.
Tommy Sheridan
(Glasgow) (SSP): So far, I agree with everything
the minister has said—I do not know if that is good or bad. Does the minister
agree that the fact that there are no specific physical education teachers
in our primary schools is a major disadvantage and does not encourage young
people to become involved early in sport and physical activity?
Allan Wilson:
I do not know whether Mr Sheridan's agreement
is good or bad, but it is probably progress.
I agree with
Mr Sheridan's substantive point. Jack McConnell, who has primary responsibility
for PE teachers in primary schools, and I are considering how the existing
resources can be used to best effect.
The task force
is made up of a range of interested specialists with areas of expertise
that include health, sport, education and local government. The aim is
to produce in the spring of next year a strategy for increasing physical
activity in Scotland.
Numerous reports
have been produced and a lot of research has been carried out on sport
in schools. The Education, Culture and Sport Committee, of which my friend
and colleague Karen Gillon is the convener, produced a useful report on
the subject last year, which included a number of important recommendations.
We have given careful consideration to the report and its recommendations
and we will shortly submit our formal response to the committee.
Action has been
taken on a number of the recommendations. For example, we have provided
an additional £2.8 million to sport Scotland to expand the active
primary schools programme.
Michael Russell
(South of Scotland) (SNP): My question is
about procedure. It strikes me that as the deputy minister has initiated
a debate on sports promotion in schools, and as the Education, Culture
and Sport Committee has produced a report on sport in schools, it would
have informed the debate if the Executive had responded to the report before
the debate, rather than having the debate before responding to the report.
The order does not help the Parliament.
Allan Wilson:
That is a fair point—I would have preferred
to have the response in advance of the debate, but that is not the situation
in which we find ourselves. The sport policy unit has been heavily engaged
in the past few weeks and months on matters such as the bid to host the
Ryder cup and the Euro 2008 football championships, but the response will
be produced in due course.
As I said, we
are implementing a large number of the measures that are in the Education,
Culture and Sport Committee's report. I will make an announcement in the
next minute, if members are patient, which will address another important
aspect of that report.
Dennis Canavan
(Falkirk West): We wait with bated breath.
Allan Wilson:
You should. We are providing opportunities
and we call on local authorities and others to engage fully in the initiatives.
One of Karen
Gillon's recommendations was that consideration should be given to the
establishment of a central body to co-ordinate the delivery of sport in
school and to provide evaluation and monitoring of best practice. I am
delighted to announce that we accept the need for that body. We will soon
establish a school sport alliance involving interested groups. The precise
remit and membership of the alliance is yet to be determined, but work
is under way and the alliance will be established and operational in the
new year.
Sport in schools
can bring wider educational benefits. Most important, sport in schools
can equip pupils with the foundation skills, attitude and expectations
necessary to prosper in a changing society.
Cathy Jamieson
(Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab): Will
the minister take an intervention?
Mr Kenneth Gibson
(Glasgow) (SNP): Will the minister take an
intervention?
Allan Wilson:
I will take Cathy Jamieson's intervention.
Cathy Jamieson:
Does the minister agree that it is vital to
target resources to those areas that have suffered the most social deprivation?
The children in such areas tend to need their confidence built up and need
sport as a way of integrating themselves into the local community.
Allan Wilson:
As ever, I agree with my good friend and colleague
Cathy Jamieson. Through sport Scotland we are targeting £3 million
to social inclusion partnerships for the promotion of sport in deprived
areas because we recognise that the children there are the most disadvantaged
in our society.
Mr Gibson: Will
the minister give way?
Allan Wilson:
If the member does not mind, I would like
to move on. Interventions militate against the amount of time that I have.
The many benefits
that are gained from sport and physical activity should make it clear that
sport and other forms of physical education are not an add-on, but an integral
part of the school curriculum. It is up to all of us to work together to
ensure that sport and physical education play their part to the full.
The agreement
on teachers' conditions and pay marks a watershed after years of instability
and destruction. Teachers have a positive contribution to make to the successful
promotion of sport in schools. That is why I am happy to accept Brian Monteith's
amendment. The McCrone settlement has introduced a framework for continuing
professional development for teachers. That framework will enable teachers
and schools to identify and address individual training needs, including
those relating to sport and physical activity.
Margaret Jamieson
(Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab): Will the minister
take an intervention?
Ms Margo MacDonald
(Lothians) (SNP): Will the minister take an
intervention? It relates to McCrone.
Allan Wilson:
I will take an intervention from Margaret
Jamieson.
Margaret Jamieson:
I thank the minister. He was talking about
the impact of McCrone on the education of our young children. Does he accept
that we should take the opportunity of modernising the pay structure for
teachers to modernise sport in our schools, to encompass non-traditional
sports and provide, for example, skateboarding facilities? I understand
that that is currently one of the cool sports for young people.
Allan Wilson:
I am nothing if not a moderniser. I agree
with Margaret Jamieson. That is in large part included in our new opportunities
fund programme, which I will say more about later. It is about investing
in community facilities. As I understand it, kids who prefer to skateboard
are not likely to do so within the confines of their school but want to
do so in their local community.
Mr Gibson: Will
the minister take an intervention?
Allan Wilson:
I would like to make progress.
Through sport Scotland,
we have introduced several programmes and initiatives that will help to
deliver our aims. The school sport co-ordinators programme is proving very
successful. To date, sport Scotland has offered awards to 23 local authorities
and 13 individual secondary schools for co-ordinator cover. Funding has
been committed for co-ordinator cover in 297 secondary schools in Scotland.
At the beginning
of the year I announced the first awards under the TOP programme, which,
for example, will benefit children aged from four to 11 years in 65 primary
schools and four special educational needs schools—£2.8 million is
earmarked for the programme over four years
On the new opportunities
fund and links between schools and the community, by 31 August this year,
sport Scotland had made—through the school facilities strand of its lottery
facilities programme—87 awards, totalling £17.6 million. sport Scotland
has recently announced the results of its audit of swimming pools and will
also conduct an audit of the rest of Scotland's sports facilities.
We are conscious
of the need—as Margaret Jamieson pointed out—to maintain and enhance the
facilities that are available to our young people, especially playing fields.
sport Scotland plays a pivotal role in that and takes its responsibility
seriously.
Members will
be aware of the massive investment in physical education and sport in schools
by the new opportunities fund: it totals £87 million. Of that investment,
£43.5 million will be allocated to the refurbishment of existing
or the building of new indoor and outdoor sports facilities for school
and community use. In addition to that, up to £21.75 million will
be committed to supporting programmes and facilities designed to promote
the role of sport in diverting young people from criminal activity. Up
to a further £21 million will be committed to supporting out-of-school-hours
programmes based on school facilities and organised through schools, which
offer children and young people a wide range of sporting and cultural activities.
I am aware of
the oft-repeated call for sport to be guaranteed in the curriculum. National
guidance recommends that a minimum of 15 per cent of time is spent on expressive
arts, which include physical education, but leaves it to individual education
authorities and schools to decide how much of that time is allocated to
PE. In addition, schools have the option of devoting additional time to
PE from the 20 per cent flexibility time that is built into the guidelines.
Mary Scanlon
(Highlands and Islands) (Con): Will the minister
give way?
The Deputy Presiding
Officer (Mr George Reid): No. Allan Wilson
is in his last minute.
Allan Wilson:
Following the distribution of a Scottish Executive
education department circular on flexibility and innovation in the curriculum,
schools have been encouraged to deliver a curriculum that meets the needs
of individual pupils, which includes the provision of physical education.
I will conclude
on the key role of local authorities. One of sport 21's four key recommendations
was that local authorities should publish a strategic plan for sport and
recreation. I am encouraged by the work of local authorities that have
already developed or are developing such strategies. A strategy on playing
fields should form part of the wider sport and recreation strategy.
sport Scotland
and I stand ready to assist local authorities with that work and I hope
that over the next year or two we will see progress. That is important
in building the effective local partnerships that enable sport in schools
to be enhanced.
I move,
That the Parliament
recognises the contribution sport makes to both the physical and mental
health of young people as well as providing a positive and attractive alternative
to anti-social and offending behaviour; endorses the various initiatives,
such as the School Sports Co-ordinator and Active Primary School Programmes
put in place by the Scottish Executive through sport Scotland and the increasing
opportunities for young people to participate in sports in schools; and
calls on local authorities, and others, to engage fully with these initiatives.
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