Hansard

I welcome the minister to his new role. For me, his constituency of Dundee City West is synonymous with sport. Any Fifer of my vintage will recall the former Olympia swimming pool that once stood close to the site of the new V&A Dundee. A more stark contrast in architecture you would be hard pushed to find; Olympia’s flumes, including the terrifying yellow cannonball, glowed brightly as you crossed the River Tay from the Kingdom.

This week is a time to celebrate women’s and girls’ involvement in sport; so, what do we know? Ninety-eight per cent of schools in Scotland provide at least two hours or periods of physical education per week, up from 10 per cent in 2004-05, the daily mile has children from primary school out and about for 15 minutes a day and Scotland’s women’s football team is off to the world cup. That is all very welcome news.

However, to celebrate properly we must reflect on the inequalities that still characterise Scottish sport, from the classroom to the football pitch. According to Scottish Qualifications Authority data, this year 10,302 boys in Scotland were presented at national 5 level in physical education. That compares with just 5,095 girls—less than half the number of boys. Of that cohort, 53.1 per cent of the girls secured ‘A’ passes, compared with 41.9 per cent of their male counterparts.

Girls are simply not choosing PE in our schools. We need to reflect on why that is and why, if they do go against the grain, they outperform their male counterparts. Who will replace the Scotland’s women’s football team in generations to come? In 1998, a case study by a former colleague of mine found that if girls wanted to succeed in PE at standard grade they needed to act “like boys”. Boys were more likely to be selected to demonstrate in class. My colleague argued, some 20 years ago now, that physical education had created a generation of “lost girls”.

We must look at what the data is telling us. What are the reasons why, in 2018, fewer than half the number of S4 pupils who chose PE were girls? On that note, I was delighted to see yesterday’s announcement from the Government to commit £300,000 to projects to help get more women and girls into sport. I have previously raised the idea of linking the health and education portfolios to tackle the attainment gap, and perhaps there is an opportunity to link sport with promoting academic attainment more broadly, as Brian Whittle alluded to in his contribution.

I am a former member of the Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee, which published the report “Sport for Everyone” in November 2017. Abertay University told us:

“Children who have had a poor experience in school are less likely to stick with sport and exercise as they go into adulthood”.—[Official Report, Health and Sport Committee, 26 September 2017; c 4.]

Much like closing the poverty-related attainment gap, therefore, early intervention is key to ensuring that children develop a positive affiliation with sport. There are proven links between academic attainment and sport. A 2014 Public Health England report on the link between pupil health and wellbeing and attainment found that

“A positive association exists between academic attainment and physical activity levels of pupils”.

Although the Greens’ amendment was not selected, I was glad to see specific mention in it of the socio-economic disadvantage that exists. We must acknowledge that access to sport from the youngest age is predicated on social stratification. The poorer someone is, the less likely they are to have access to sport from the outset. Physical education in school holds the key to closing the socioeconomic gap in opportunity, because if mum, dad or someone else is not running girls to football, hockey, swimming or dancing, what chance do they have to succeed in sport? What chance do they have even just to try it? School is the leveller, and I firmly believe that more should be done to invest in our PE departments nationally.

I am grateful to the Scottish Sports Association for providing information on women and sport ahead of the debate. I note from that that sport leads to a 20 to 40 per cent reduced risk of breast cancer; that it leads to increased confidence—and young women in the UK have some of the lowest levels of confidence in Europe; and a pay gap difference of potentially up to 8 per cent higher earnings.

Reducing cancer rates, improving wellbeing and closing the gender-related pay gap are all policies that this Government seeks to advance. Perhaps sport could be the answer to all three.

It is welcome news that the SSA will receive an extra £70,000 of Government funding for 2018-19 to increase the representation of women and minority ethnic communities in sport. I very much hope that some of the funding will be used to work directly with our secondary schools to make a difference where it counts, such as widening access to the school estate, which was highlighted as an opportunity in the Health and Sport Committee report that I mentioned earlier.

I remember the last time that the men’s football team qualified for the world cup. The year was 1998, Del Amitri was singing “Don’t Come Home Too Soon” and I had managed to buy myself a reduced-price Umbro strip from the Wellgate in Dundee. It was a good time to be a Scotland supporter—briefly. In 2018, that hope exists, encompassed in the ethos of the women’s team. I am so proud that this Scottish National Party Government has committed to fund our national squad, thereby allowing those who are not professionals to train full time from January.

Perhaps we can all be proud of Vivienne MacLaren, the chair of Scottish Women’s Football, who explained to this week’s Scotland on Sunday why the team rejected bids for sponsorship from alcohol or gambling companies. She said:

“We don’t want to take money when there’s girls playing football out there who can’t afford to get to training. We’re trying to help clubs support their players. There’s kids that can’t afford football boots and yet there’s alcohol and gambling brands around a lot of sports.”

She is right.

Vivienne MacLaren’s attitude is inspirational. There are so many other Scottish women like her involved in sport. Liz McColgan, Eve Muirhead and Lynsey Sharp are all role models of their time who deserve to be celebrated. Scotland needs more female sporting role models and, to get them, we need to find out why so few continue to pick PE in school. It is not aptitude, as the exam results tell us. To challenge gender segregation in sport, we need to go back to the classroom and ensure that there is sport for all.