The report, presented today to Minister for Education and Skills Leighton Andrews and Minister for Culture and Sport John Griffiths, recommends that PE becomes a subject on which "school provision must be formally and regularly assessed" and for which all teachers must be "thoroughly prepared" during their initial training.

The paper also commends the Welsh Government's commitment to making "physical literacy" as important in schools as reading, writing and numeracy, but it maintains that giving PE core-subject status is the only way to make this aspiration a reality.

Elevating PE to core-subject status is expected to cost approximately £5 million ($8 million/€6 million) a year, however the officials argued this should be set against the estimated £73 million ($1.1 billion/€85 million) annual cost to the health service of continuing with current levels of obesity.

Should Wales follow the report's recommendation it would become the first nation globally to take this step.

"Evidence shows that we are facing a ticking obesity time-bomb and, unless we make physical education a core subject, we will still be here in 20 years' time having made little or no progress," Baroness Tanni said.

National Assembly for Wales figures, quoted in the report, show childhood obesity rates in the nation are the highest in the United Kingdom, with about 36 per cent of children aged under 16 being overweight or obese.

The authors also point to evidence that good quality physical activity in school can lead to higher academic attainment and bring lifelong physical, mental and social benefits to individuals.


Baroness Tanni added that it was worrying that teachers were expected to provide good quality physical education when they received as little as four hours instruction on this subject during their initial teacher training.

"Parents would be horrified if that happened with maths, English or Welsh. It is hard to deliver good physical education instruction and teachers need strong initial training and continuous professional development to equip them for this," she said.

The report went on to highlight examples of countries, such as Canada, Finland and Scotland, where physical activity is already "taken particularly seriously" and given a higher status in schools and although it acknowledged that good practice does take place in many Welsh schools it described this as "hit and miss".

"The recommendation from this report translates into reality the Welsh Government commitment to physical literacy being as important as reading and writing," Laura McAllister, chair of Sport Wales, who was a member of the review group, said.

"This recognises that the school experience is not exclusively about academic achievement, important as this is, but also about preparing young people to live active, healthy lives.

"Through the delivery of high quality PE and sporting opportunities in schools and outside, we believe that we can create a generation of active young people equipped with the skills to enjoy a lifelong involvement in sport."

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