Lord Moynihan deems Team GB's privately educated medal haul "wholly unacceptable"
The BOA chairman is calling for a rethink of state school sports policy.
Lord Moynihan has condemned as "wholly unacceptable" the dominiance of privately-educated athletes among British Olympic medal winners.
Just half of Team GB's gold medals in Beijing were won by former state-school pupils which the chairman of the British Olympic Association said was "one of the worst statistics in British sport".
Just 7% of British children come through private schools and Lord Moynihan said that the multitude of untapped talent in the state educated 93% "should be identified and developed".
However, these demands for a rejuvination of school sports policy come in the midst of continuing cuts to school sports funding. In 2010, ringfenced funding to School Sports Partnerships was slashed by 69%, and since then it's been reported by Labour that there's been a 60% reduction in the amount of time spent organising school sport.
David Cameron, an old Etonian himself, recently asked at a speech in Loughborough: "Why is it that, in so many schools, sport has been squeezed out and facilities run down?"
Rupert Murdoch suggested another reason for the failings of state sector school in the UK and US. He tweeted: "No wonder China leading in medals while US and UK mainly teach competitive sport a bad thing. How many champions state school background?"
Three schools that I know of have stopped doing sport because, as they said, 'it is competitive'. The inference is that children should not be allowed to fail...everybody should win. My daughter is a Teaching Assistant in a primary school. They've stopped doing sport and PE because they don't have the time for it, as they've had so many other subjects forced on them. The playing field has been sold for housing.
A neighbour is a children's entertainer doing party games and so on. Now, she said, when she does games such as Pass the Parcel, everybody has to have a prize at the end of it, not only the child who won. Absolute nonsense. However will these kids manage in the adult world when they have to fight to win jobs and accept defeat.
What a load of crap
If thats the case bring public education in sport up to the same standards as private.
Whats unaccepatable ? Winning ? young people excelling at sport ?
Typical left/socialist solution - lets not strive for the best, just bring every thing down to the lowest level - we strive to be mediocre. Labour had 13 years to improve school sports and did the square root of FA. Why bother when most of their kids go to private school ? Yeah like Diane Abbot 2 faced bitch sending her kids to private school.
Toffs are bad but Labour toffs pretending to be working class make me chuck.
What do you expect,after 13 years of 'elitist' champagne swilling,shirt-lifting,muffin-chomping New Labour,whereby, only immigrants,gays,tax evader\avoiders,celeb's or other ,dregs of society are in New Labour's magic circle?
Working class children have been brainwashed by New Labour's education policies & airbrushed out of reality into a Benefit depending underclass,with no hope of anything in life.
The above being true, just how are our children & grandchildren to be expected to achieve anything in their lives.
Not only are these youngsters lost to society,the country itself is screwed,when the Olympic effects wear off,the realty of the economic situation will again come to the fore,as will Syria et'c.
Remember,it was NEW LABOUR,that sold off our school playing fields, for building houses for their 'middle class' friends.
The thing about children who go to private schools,they are given the opportunity to take part in sports,and if they show they have an aptitude they are then encouraged and coached,In a state school they dont get that chance,we used to have that,but,thanks to a certain women who lived in the 1920`s,she cut all the funding for sports,but,never touched the priveledged from getting a good sporting education.
You will always get those who are not sporty,but,all children must get the chance to choose.
My daughter's primary school 'sports day' was pathetic, in the 'field events', the boys ambled past waving and calling 'Hi, Mum!' Whatever this activity might be, it does not merit the name 'sport'. It's a joke and it begs the question, 'So what are all the school fields for then?' My child loves to run, to swim, to compete with other children - but she has been thwarted throughout by her school's total indifference to sport and her potential has been totally disregarded and undeveloped. The inconsistency between this comfortable, anti-competetive mentality in state schools on one hand and the media frenzy for Olympic medals on the other seems very odd to me.
But the comfortable ethos is not going to change in state schools until/unless the state takes the lead, gets proactive and initiates change. So, enough of the talk, Mr Moynihan, it's action that's needed.
You sold off all the school sports fields, for housing, in order to raise money to (line the pockets of local and central government), fund the new education system, private education did not !! .
You used the issue of non competitive education to justify the cost savings and to reduce the impact of target driven education. ( Is that not competitive in a slightly different way). The private system did not, they meet the standards anyway.
Don't complain that private education kept faith with the old values, system and standards. We elected stupid government after stupid government on promises that we were going to to receive something for nothing.....
Get real, you get what you pay for.
Sad to say that we bought a 'PUP' after 'PUP' for the last 20 years.
No I did not go to private school neither did my son, guess what ?. No spelling errarrse
this is a result of a labour leftist
policy for schools where copetitive sports are not allowed as no one is allowed to lose hence very little sport is done in schools so the equipment is not bought a PE is not a priority anymore . there has to be winners and losers in life which is not taght anymore as we are all eqaul only som are more equal than others sorry a bit Orwellian there but true
