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Andy Burnham (Leigh) (Lab): It has been a fascinating debate. There is rarely a spirit of unity across the House, but for the first time since I have been in this place I have agreed with every word from the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash), so it was certainly worth being here this afternoon.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Mr. Wyatt) said, we are seeing a lot in the media about the problems of antisocial behaviour teenage obesity. We have a ready-made answer in sport, yet we seem not to exploit it to its full potential. It still has far too low a priority in politics and in public life.
Before we ask questions of schools, local authorities or anyone else, perhaps we should ask ourselves in this House whether we are doing enough for sport. I would argue that we are not. I checked up before the debate and found that 354 Members list sport of some kind among their interests in "Dod's". Why on earth is that interest not translating into making sport a hard-edged political priority that is backed by investment, with a proper structure underneath it to lever change? That has been done in France, Australia and New Zealand, but it seems to be beyond us.
We all know that sport is a unifying force like no other in our communities. Leigh Centurians rugby league club in my constituency won a hard-earned promotion to the super league on Sunday night. It will lift our town as nothing else can. It is a fantastic achievement, which will boost participation in our schools, yet we do not recognise the importance of sport enough in terms of funding.
Having worked in government as a sports adviser for a while, I would argue that a prejudice against sport runs through much of Whitehall. Sport is the poor relation in meetings at the Cabinet Office. Sport is not taken seriously, and that must change. We can change it here if we act together, across the House, when we agree—we do agree on many of these points—to give it greater priority. Let us have some statutory responsibilities to provide high-quality sports facilities. In the cultural sector, councils' only responsibility is to provide a full and comprehensive library service, whereas there should be clear responsibilities to provide good sporting facilities.
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Unlike the arts, sport is seen within government as sufficiently wealthy and with enough volunteers to look after itself. That thinking partly allowed the demise of the sporting infrastructure in this country in the 1980s and '90s. Let us give credit where it is due: John Major introduced the national lottery, which has helped, but it is a drop in the ocean. We need far more investment if we are to make changes.
Some Opposition Members and those on the right in this country must accept the argument that sport needs investment, but we must accept that sport is about competition. Let us make no apology for the fact that sport encourages competitiveness. That is where its true value is realised; it is how young people learn vital life skills: teamwork; loyalty; discipline; the responsibility that comes with representing their schools and the loyalty that they feel when doing so; performing under pressure; and dealing with winning and losing. Scoring a match-winning penalty or holding a high catch at mid-off is one of the most life-affirming things that they can do at 12 or 13 that is legal, yet those on the liberal left can still be heard arguing against competitive school sport.
Peter Wilby, editor of the New Statesman, wrote in The Observer Sport Monthly:
"Organised competitive sport is agony for many children: it can lead to humiliation and indignity."
Perhaps it does for some children—some children may not like it—but is that an argument for denying it to those who will thrive on it and seek to gain most from it? There is a generation of liberal thinkers in journalism, public life and education who allow their own painful memories of school sport to become a justification to deprive others of it. Many people love sport. As the Minister rightly said—he was spot on—it lifts the self-esteem and self-confidence of some young people who may struggle in the classroom. That is one of its real benefits. So we must confront those arguments head on. We cannot allow the corrosive notion to succeed that competitive sport is in any way controversial to run, and we must do something about that.
The Government have done a lot—we are definitely moving in the right direction—but I argue that the manifesto should take us a lot further and push sport right up the political agenda. I am afraid that the figures show, regretfully, that sport in this country is far too class based. At the Sydney Olympics, 80 per cent of our medallists went to private schools. Some analysis of the Athens games shows that 40 per cent. of the winners went to private schools. I have nothing against people from private schools, but it cannot be right that the talent of so many young people in our state schools is not coming through. We need to do much better by them. Loth as I am to say it, private schools have shamed some public sector schools in providing quality sporting opportunities.
In closing, I want to give the Minister a few ideas. What would I do if I had the opportunity and chance to sit where he is sitting? I would expand the entitlement and begin it at primary school, with the competitive, playing-to-win ethos at the very core. I would ensure that children not only have access to inter-school competitive fixtures in the main sports, but the right to receive qualified coaching in them. How many children go through our state system never having been told how to play cricket with a straight bat, how to hold the seam across a cricket
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ball when they are bowling or how to hit a tennis ball properly? They go through school without ever learning how to do that. That is talent lost to our country.
Like the hon. Member for Stone, I would go further: let us guarantee three hours of sport in schools and do away with traditional notions about which sports are acceptable. If girls want to play football in school, they should do so, and they should play organised, competitive football in school. Likewise, if boys want to play hockey, they should do so. Whatever the demand, schools should seek to meet it.
Why do schools let their children go out at lunchtime, cause mayhem on high streets and buy chips and biscuits? Schools should keep children in for the full day and provide a full range of sporting activities in the lunch-hour break, giving their pupils more chances to take part in sport. It seems to be a case of out of sight, out of mind, with people saying, "Off you go. Go and cause trouble somewhere else." Lunchtime activities are part of the solution, but the core of my argument is that we need a vibrant, competitive school league structure in all the main sports, starting from the age of 7, and that schools should be required to provide teams in all those categories.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, North (Mr. Henderson) said, let us make sport the personal responsibility of a senior person in schools—perhaps the deputy head or possibly the head teacher. It is too important to be an ad hoc arrangement—something that may happen and may not. Let us make it someone's direct responsibility. Let us have extended Wednesdays, when everyone knows that a whole slate of competitive sports will take place and the school day will continue until 5 or 6 o'clock.
Let us shatter some of the prejudices. Personally, I would have no problem about boxing being provided in state schools, if there were young people who wanted to do it; it appeals to a particular hard-to-reach group, and has an edge over other sports in terms of personal focus, discipline and fitness. Let us provide what young people want to do. If there is a demand, let us not have hang-ups and prejudices about what is right and what is wrong, but let us provide what they want. Sport must begin at the beginning, with high-quality coaching and a play-to-win ethos from the very bottom of British sport.
5.35 pm
Mr. Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich, West) (Lab/Co-op): I shall make my remarks short, as much of what I wanted to say has already been said by others.
I welcome the Minister's statement, and the development of a policy that has been overdue for the past 30 years. In another life, I was one of those enthusiastic but inept comprehensive school teachers who ran a football team, and I hate to think how many budding international footballers I must have ruined with my coaching. We must have a far more professional approach, and a recognition that sport is a vital part of education, but also that education is a vital part of sport.
That is particularly relevant to areas such as mine, where there is a proud sporting tradition, involving not only the fanatical following for West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers, but athletics, with clubs such as Tipton Harriers. Despite that sporting tradition, there are very low educational aspirations—but we have a
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sports college, Wood Green high school in Wednesbury, which has brought enormous benefits to the area in both sport and education.
Someone asked earlier about academic qualifications. Not only is Wood Green high school a sports college, doing great work in linking with the 50 other schools in the local area to raise standards, it is also the highest performing academic school in the borough. There used to be a feeling, especially in the state sector, that schools were either sporting but not academic, or academic but not sporting. That has been totally disproved by our experience, which shows the success of the policy at the grass roots.
Wood Green high school is also breaking new ground in providing sporting activity before conventional school times for primary school pupils. With the help of the local authority, it is bussing in primary school pupils at 8 o'clock for an hour of PE and lifestyle education, which will not only help them through their lives but will also break down the barrier involved in moving between primary and secondary education.
Let me say a few words about competition. I love competition in sport, but we must have a broader perspective. We have moved a long way from the historical caricature of sport in schools, with the sadistic schoolteacher humiliating inept schoolboys or schoolgirls—if it ever existed. However, the fact remains that if we force young people to take part in a sport that they are not good at, it undermines their self-confidence and puts them off sport in general.
We must have not only a sports strategy in schools, but a physical fitness strategy, involving a range of activities. Those who want to play competitive sport and excel in it could do so, but others, who may not want to do that but who want to be fit, to feel on top of things and to have self-esteem, could take part in other activities—even just plain walking—to reach a certain level of physical fitness. I see no reason why schools should not have some measure of the physical fitness of their pupil population, as well as of their academic competence.
I shall finish with a couple more points. I welcome the Academic Coaches Ensuring Success—ACES—initiative that West Bromwich Albion runs. It is a new scheme, which is designed not for the most under-achieving pupils but for those who have potential and are not fully realising it. It is intended to help them through their GCSEs. It was launched in my borough this week and I await the results with interest.
I want to underline the problem of the drop-off in young women's participation in active sport in their early teenage years. It requires serious consideration and, if necessary, serious investment in schools to tackle it. In addition, in ethnic minority communities, cultural issues overlay the problem. I simply flag that up to the Under-Secretary as a matter that needs to be addressed.
When I learned about the target of two hours of PE a week, I could not believe that it was so low and that we are so far behind. However, we are getting there. We have made good progress so far but much remains to be done. I hope that the debate will contribute to that.
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5.41 pm
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