Representatives of Sport England, the Association for Physical Education and the Sport and Recreation Alliance said teacher training for primary school teachers should cover sport as well as core academic subjects.
“If we’re talking about sustainability, the best thing you could probably do is to have a specialist PE teacher in every primary school by building it into teacher training,” Andy Reed, the chairman of the Sport and Recreation Alliance told MPs.
Another major point recommended by witnesses was the need to develop stronger links between schools and community sport providers to make sure pupils do not “drop off” from playing sport when they leave schools.
Former Olympic champion and triple jump world record holder Jonathan Edwards also spoke to the committee and described the controversial decision to axe School Sports Partnerships as a “very bad decision” which “wasn’t well thought through”.