‘Not enough exercise for schoolchildren’

PRIMARY schoolchildren are not getting enough exercise due to a lack of proper facilities for physical education, Fine Gael has claimed.

An ESRI report on schoolchildren and sport found around two thirds of primary pupils have only one PE class or less per week.

At second level, the average student received less than 69 minutes of PE a week, compared with the recommended two hours. A survey of more than 1,400 primary schools by Fine Gael has found three quarters have no sports hall and almost half have no playing pitch.