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Children getting more active
Released 19/10/2008
Pupils are doing more PE hours in schools
Children are getting more active and partaking in more PE hours, according to latest government figures.
The figures show that 90 per cent of pupils now do at least two hours of exercise a week, an increase of four million since 2002.
The government is pushing to increase the levels of physical activities done in schools, in an attempt to increase the medal hopes for the 2012 London Olympics.
The improved figures are in line with a £2.4bn investment in sport until 2011.
Children's minister Ed Balls said: "We have made massive progress in the last few years and laid a firm foundation for a permanent 2012 Olympic legacy. It's a testament to the fantastic, hard work of the Youth Sport Trust, schools and sports clubs.
"Ignore the half-pint full critics who carp nothing has changed. School sport was a national embarrassment a decade ago. Sport had all but withered and died in many schools; thousands of playing fields had been sold off; there was negligible investment; and an ingrained anti-competitive culture.
"School and youth sport has now never been as well funded; there is a permanent infrastructure and support in place; and more children doing PE and sport than ever before. Children don't want to be wrapped in cotton wool - they want to compete at their own level, in the sports they want," Balls said.