Irish Sports Council Study

This article appeared in the Irish Examiner on October 22, 2010


ONLY a third of primary school pupils and just 10% of post-primary pupils are receiving the recommended amount of time for physical education every week, a major study has revealed.

The Irish Sports Council study — which uncovered alarming levels of inactivity among 10 to 18-year-olds — goes on to reveal one in four children are unfit, overweight or obese and have high blood pressure.

The Department of Education recommends that post-primary students should have two hours of physical education a week, while primary school children should have one hour.

On average, post primary students get 77 minutes of physical education a week, while primary school pupils, get 46, the report states.

Over 5,000 children from 53 primary and 70 post-primary schools took part in the study last year, that makes the sole recommendation to increase participation in physical activity among children.

Called the Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity study, it is a follow-up to the School Children and Sport in Ireland study, published by the ESRI in 2005.

Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony told yesterday’s meeting of the Oireachtas Education Committee that the way physical education had been treated in schools over the years was a disgrace. "We’ve talked for many years about physical education becoming a subject but lack of resources has come up as an issue before."

The Mayo TD and former second-level teacher warned that physical education was an area the country could not afford to ignore because of the health issues involved.