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Newry and Armagh MLA and SDLP Sports Spokesperson Justin McNulty has said that funding for school sports must be reinstated.
Mr. McNulty was speaking after meeting with a delegation from Ulster GAA, the IFA, and representatives of the North’s major political parties.
Funding for the School Sports Programme, which delivers statutory curriculum physical education for children in primary schools across the North, was halted by the Department of Education. The programme provides funding for 22 Ulster GAA and Irish FA coaches to work in partnership with 900 teachers and nearly 25,000 school kids.
Mr McNulty said: “Physical literacy is as important as any other component of a child’s education. Sports in schools cannot be seen as a bolt-on or an optional extra, it is essential to the physical and psychological development of our young people.
“Regular participation in sports help to develop a young person’s resilience, dexterity, confidence, and mental well-being. However, many schools are not providing the minimum 2 hour per week of physical education. It therefore beggars belief that the Department of Education has seen fit to cut funding for the school sports programme.
“With lifestyles becoming increasingly sedentary, and mental health and obesity challenges becoming more and more prevalent, surely funding for school sports programmes has never been more important. There is an enormous irony in sporting delegations and political representatives meeting this week in relation to the importance of sport when local athlete and Portaferry Gael, Ciara Mageean, is poised to bring home a World Athletics Championship Medal and become a major role model for our young people for generations.
“Cutting funding for school sports programmes is essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul. It doesn’t make sense in the short term, and it makes even less sense in the long term. We need an Executive restored as a matter of urgency to reinstate this crucial funding and ensure that those taking the knife to public funding may only do so in the full glare of public accountability.”
