State urged to make school exercise compulsory

EXERCISE must be made a mandatory part of the school curriculum, the Government has been warned, after new figures show most schoolchildren do less than an hour of physical education (PE) each week.

A survey by campaign group the Nutrition and Health Foundation (NHF) has revealed that 96% of primary and secondary school-goers take regular PE classes, but 65% are taking less than one hour a week.

The Department of Education recommends that all children should have a minimum of two hours of PE each week. But this is not mandatory and it is up to individual schools how the recommendation is implemented.