Bring back PE to schools: Stofile

Physical education needs to be bought back into the curriculum of South African schools, Sport and Recreation Minister  Makhenkesi Stofile said on Wednesday.

“We must also work hard to develop proper strategies to get physical education back into the curriculum of our schools,” he said at the opening of the Sports and Recreation South Africa conference in Durban on Wednesday. 

He said physical education died in the 1960s in the country and had been difficult to revive. The standard was now at its worst and
he suggested creating a government department to solve the problem. 

"The most important and practical [solution] is for the department of basic education to establish a fully fledged directorate of physical education… It must be the department that is the custodian of the children.” 

Teachers' apathetic

The involvement of children in sport built federations and community clubs which would supply quality athletes. 

“We note with great sadness the apathy displayed by some teachers in our time. We must all join hands in developing strategies to get teachers back in sport.” 

He congratulated athlete Caster Semenya for her patience while the International Association of Athletics Federations was
finalising her gender tests. "We must congratulate Ms Semenya on her patience and disciplined  way in dealing with the case." (Sapa, August 2010)