Rival parties 'must work together to hit PE target'

The Scottish Government target of two hours' physical education per week is being met in only five out of the Capital's 23 secondary schools and 20 out of its 91 primaries.

That works out at 21.7 per cent of secondaries compared to the national average of 23.1 per cent and just 22 per cent of primaries compared to an average of 35.8 per cent.

Education Secretary Mike Russell insists schools around the country are working hard to provide more PE and good progress is being made.

But Labour accuses the SNP of failing to deliver on a key pledge in its 2007 election manifesto.

Ms MacDonald said both the SNP and Labour had both talked about the importance of increasing PE in schools.

And she said: "I wonder if they could agree to work together on this because they both had the same policy.

"We have an election coming up and this is traditionally the time when Labour says black and the SNP says white and vice versa.

"This should not be party political, because they have the same policies."

She said she had never believed the two-hour target was achievable in all schools.

"In some schools there is only one central hall which is used for everything, including school dinners, so the facilities were not there.

And some of the new schools have much less space for outdoor activities.

"Schools also have so many exams now that they don't have a focus on PE and they don't have the money for it, so it gets squeezed.

"What I have said is every child should have a period of physical activity every day - that's different from PE, but at least it is built into the psyche that everyone has to exercise in some way every day and it's more flexible - some days it might be ten minutes, the next day it might be a full period."

The SNP pledged in its manifesto at the 2007 elections that "to help Scottish children develop the habit of physical fitness we will ensure that every pupil has two hours of quality PE each week delivered by specialist PE teachers".

Labour did not make any specific commitment, but the party endorses the importance of PE as "one of the best ways to encourage young people to develop healthy lifestyles".

Edinburgh Central MSP Labour Sarah Boyack attacked the SNP's "utter failure" to deliver its manifesto pledge.

She said: "Councils have simply not been given the means to deliver this pledge and Alex Salmond and his SNP government now need to admit that."

The government said working towards the delivery of two hours' PE was embedded within Curriculum for Excellence, which all councils had signed up to and which was due to be adopted in schools in August.