Association of Colleges
Colleges lose out in sports funding announcement
21 December 2010
Colleges lose out in sports funding announcement
Schools retain funding for sport but Colleges face total cut
The Association of Colleges is disappointed to note that the revised funding arrangement for school sport, providing every secondary school with funding to 2013 to pay for one day a week of a PE teacher’s time, does not include a reprieve for the same posts in FE Colleges and Sixth Form Colleges.
The announcement by the Department for Education demonstrates that the government has recognised the value of additional time spent on sporting activities and competitions. Encouraging students to increase their involvement in sport was a key role in the work of Further Education Sports Co-ordinators (FESCo), so it is surprising and discouraging that Colleges have not also been provided with the one day per week role in the revised settlement. This would cost less than £5 million for two years, compared with the £65 million that has been found for schools.
Martin Doel, Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “Colleges provide a setting for more than 800,000 young people each year and a continued role for the FESCo posts is essential in keeping these students involved in sport. Colleges have been an important part of the School Sports Partnerships for the past two years. The FESCo role has just started to make a real difference and we have seen significant increases in the number of 16-19 year olds taking part in sport as a result. Young people in College deserve the same opportunities as those in schools; this announcement means that they will not receive those opportunities.”
British Colleges Sport Chief Executive John Hole said: “British Colleges Sport shares the disappointment of the AoC and the sector as whole that colleges have not been included within the Government plans for sport. There is no doubt that the FESCos are making a great difference, particularly around participation and volunteering. Our students are the future of sport in the country and deserve the same chances as their contemporaries in schools.”
There remains a significant drop in sports participation when young people leave school, and it remains a priority for Sport England and many sports-related national governing bodies to increase the number of 16-19 year olds taking part in competitive sport. If the FESCo role is retained, even if reduced to one day per week, it would provide a mechanism for ensuring that the drop-off in participation post-16 is reduced.
The decision not to extend funding to FE Colleges is also surprising at a point when the Coalition Government is committed to closing the funding gap between Colleges and school sixth forms. Unless reversed, this latest decision serves only to create an additional inequality for 16-19 year olds in Colleges compared to their peers in schools.
Ends
Contacts:
|
Helen Galley National Press Officer 020 7034 9973 helen_galley@aoc.co.uk
|
About Colleges
· 831,000 of 16 to 18-year-olds choose to study in a College or Sixth Form College (compared to 423,000 in maintained schools, academies and city technology colleges)
· 16% of 16 to 18-year-olds in Further Education Colleges and 10% in Sixth Form Colleges are from a disadvantaged background, compared with 7% in maintained school sixth forms
· 69% of those receiving an Education Maintenance Allowance study in a College
View all news
