06/08/2012 Newsnight Scotland

appeared to really wanted. If foreign fighters fuel the fire of

the conflict, the implications are far reaching. The Tonight on

Newsnight Scotland, are you considering taking up track

cycling? Or maybe showjumping? The Team GB medal glut may be inspiring

ideas of getting active or maybe even starting a new sport. But will

Olympics enthusiasm translate into a healthier nation or a new

generation of athletes? Good evening. Sitting on the sofa

agog at the televised feats of the world's athletes is about as active

as most of us will have got in the last week, but after every major

sporting event there is a surge in interest in participating in sport.

One of the declared aims of this Olympics, and indeed of the 2014

Commonwealth Games, is a legacy of more sporting excellence amongst

elite athletes and greater participation amongst us mere

mortals. Jamie McIvor asks if they have any real chance of achieving

that. It has been a spectacular few days for me Great Britain team. It

was made even sweeter for many Scots when Andy Murray defeated

Roger Federer to win gold in the tennis. But will this lead to a

real a legacy, a legacy of lasting sporting success, inspiring the

future generations? Boys like David and Angus play tennis regularly,

but what did they say to the friends who are not so keen on

playing sport. It is really fun and energetic and you get a lot of good

feeling playing sport. You get the rush of energy when you're doing

sport, even when you are not winning, is still a great

experience. It is just for the fun of it. It is not going to kill you

if you do not do it. It is just for fun. The sports complex when they

play will be one of the venues for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. On the

badminton court, up one of the British players plays here and one

of the other wants is doing the coaching. Jill Lee a man was a

member of the team in the 2000 Olympics. We are this good feeling

about the Olympics, it is important that we get as many people involved

in sport while it is going so well for the Great Britain team. People

want to play sport. You can see the courts are busy, the badminton

courts are busy, the tennis courts are busy. Big sporting events have

always tended to be youngsters excited for a few weeks, but the

challenge is to not maintain that momentum, so that the youngsters

will keep the sports up permanently or at least lead a healthier

lifestyle. The there are encouraging signs ahead of the

Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. There have been record attendances

and sports development programmes. That best way to encourage people

is to say that all these athletes out there were not born that way.

The all started somewhere. The message has come to come along and

try it out. There is something for But some sports may not always be

so easy to get started and. Pride in the British rowing team is one

thing, but many youngsters do not get the chance to try it out.

the past, it may have been available to children as part of or

physical education curriculum. Scottish Rowing is trapped working

hard to push it back into the school curriculum and it is really

important that there is this link between schools and universities

and not just to rowing, but to all sports. We want kids to pick up

sport at school and then be able to take it on when he reached

university. The London Olympics are meant to have the legacy for the

whole of the United Kingdom, salt in the same way the Commonwealth

Games should have the legacy for their saw how can that happen?

Getting more children into sport and nurturing those who have the

potential to become world class. In a moment, I will speak to the

Sports Minister, but first I am joined in the studio by former

Olympic 400 metre runner Brian Whittle and from Dundee by the

former First Minister Henry McLeish, who has written a report into the

state of Scottish football. Henry, Scotland has done very well in

terms of Olympic medals. It is very it inspiring, but when the Games

come to an end, will there be much of a legacy for Scotland? A I think

there may well be. It has been incredible watching these athletes

achieving the success they have, but legacy is difficult to deliver.

From the children's perspective, you can see the point of sport been

fun, working with other people as a team. It is all about fitness,

health and well-being and when you consider all of these items, plus

the fact it is character-building and confidence building, frankly I

do not think the nation has a choice. We have to go forward. We

have to invest. But I think there is a real opportunity between the

Olympic Games closing and the Commonwealth Games opening in two

years' time, that we can make the progress continue that we have made

in the last few years. The success we have seen in sports that very

few people schoolchildren were Scottish kids will ever really

participate and - rowing, canoeing, can a strained equestrian events.

There is no doubt that over half of the medals won have come from

people who went to private schools. We are not asking the schools to

pick these sports onto their curriculum, but there are a lot of

easier sports which could lead a more on that path to him more

healthy lifestyle. It is not hard to include netball, hockey,

athletics, swimming. We need to put these back in the curriculum and

Embedding sport back into our education system. Back is the

aspiration, but the problem is delivering that and making sure

that state schools for a the driver for sporting success. Arguably, the

are not doing that. Currently, I do not think they are doing that, but

I think they have this window between 2012 and 2014 where we

could get this right. I would like to see as taking a step back and

taking a look at this. I do not think we have got all the answers.

I think we have to start encouraging parents to get back

involved with their kids and extra curricular sport. We do not have

enough coaches and enough parents. For me, the first coach he could

will ever have is their parents. We have to encourage parents and the

back of the Olympic Games to get involved. We see the success of

people like Andy Murray, who have had a very supportive family to

drive them on to success. In the absence of that, what our schools

not doing right which are preventing or not doing what they

should be doing. They are has been a lot of talk about the great

British team, but it is more about Scotland. It is about teachers and

about schools. We have got a huge number of sports authorities

involved. If we can get this team approach together, we cannot

underestimate the fact that while sport is claiming the political

agenda, it is not as high as they should be. If I think there is also

a cultural problem. I hear that schools are about the mind. They

should be about the mind and the body. I can see a bright future as

long as me in bed and the culture to the young person and parent,

plus two there communities, when we look at the likes of obesity, be

know what we should be doing. I think the government are doing well,

but what they have to do is to bring all these people together and

make it seem Scotland as we work towards the Commonwealth Games.

What the needs to change? We have seen so many medals won by private

school pupils. What needs to happen in state schools for that to

change? I have talked about the school estates being opened up.

There are wonderful facilities lying dormant for much of the year.

The other problem facing the likes of football... They have this is

about team Scotland, it means everybody. When it comes to

facilities and the likes of football, we are among the poorest

and football. -- the poorest in Europe. People cannot stand idly by

and just say it is the government's responsibility. It is all of our

responsibility to ensure that every child in Scotland may not be an

elite athlete and win medals, but they should have the opportunity to

When you're in charge as First Minister we saw a deal that did not

require teachers to participate in school sports, would you like to

see that change? In the mid- 1980s when Margaret Thatcher was involved

and school teachers decided they had had enough of what happened, at

that point a lot of the interest went out of school sports. I think

we can get it back again. The government needs to make sure all

of the schools are responding. You cannot force people but after the

Olympics we can see the benefit of individual success and high

achievement. On the other hand, if you develop the base and a bigger

pool of talent then in the end we will win more medals in the British

team and in the Commonwealth Games. We will leave it there. Thank you

very much. Here are some of the defining

images of the Olympic Games so far which we will be seeing for quite

some time. It's a fantastic silver medal for Great Britain. Michael

Jamieson what a performance that was. It's a golden triumph for Andy

Murray. I watch the athletics last night and it was amazing. It was

just amazing the way Mo Farah one. The crowd are cheering him on. They

are into their home stretch. Has he got enough? He is kicking. It is

going to be a gold. Mo Farrah! Its gold! I gave him my absolute all

and I am sorry that I did not get the gold for everyone who was

expecting me to. I am so proud and pleased to get eight bronze medal.

It is nothing to be embarrassed of. The pride of Sheffield, the pride

of Great Britain, Jessica Ennis is a her Olympic champion. Jessica

For Great Britain, a new world I enjoyed now by Shona Robison who

has replaced Henry McLeish in Dundee. Thank you very much for

joining us. Inspiring scenes from many of us. What are you doing?

What concrete action are you taking to convert that sense of excitement

into something more permanent? First of all it was great to see

some of those inspiring scenes. Team GB has done so well and of

course within that the Scottish Olympians, I was working out before

we went on air that out of 54 Scottish athletes, one in six is

now way medalist which is tremendous. It is inspiring for a

potential new generation of athletes coming through.

Participation rates, if one child tries a sport that they have not

tried before and so many of the athletes to one have said that,

that is a really good message to young people. That is a great role

model that athletes should be promoting and so many of the mark,

it is good to see. Does it not worry you that we are so reliant in

Scotland on people from privileged backgrounds or people with

tremendous family support for our national success. Well, we are

working very hard to make sure that we break down the barriers so that

no matter what your background, if you're good at a sport, you can go

all the way. We are doing that in a variety of ways, increasing

investment in he, so we get the basics right. There is an active

schools network which is a massive success story. We are opening up

opportunities to children who might otherwise not have had them. We are

getting good schools' links. We are opening up clubs. I visited a high

school in Motherwell where they are converting 50% of their secondary

schools into community sports clubs and rowing is one of the sports

they are promoting. It takes a bit of time but I think we have the

building blocks are beginning to be in the right places, making sure

our governing bodies deliver on the participation in the sports as well

as performance. All of that takes a bit of time to come through but I

think the fact that we have had such success will help to clear

that up somewhat. It will certainly inspired kids. A lot of them are

going back to school in a few weeks so how many of them will still not

be getting the basic two hours of PE every week that they should be

getting? I am sure you followed the recent release of statistics on

that that showed over 80% of primary schools are delivering two

hours and over 90% of secondary schools are delivering two periods

and I am confident that by the time we get to the Commonwealth Games we

will have completed the journey on P E. He made that promise in 2007

which was a long time ago. That target has been around since about

1993 or something ridiculous like that. I was determined to complete

that journey. It is just a part of the jigsaw. The active schools

network delivers huge opportunities. 10,000 volunteers back at Look

North. We have excellent links to make sure that the children can get

to the clubs to get even more reform -- performance in their

sports and that is beginning to happen. Is there a wider problem in

our state schools, are they embracing the sporting ethos of

competition and winning and losing? Some are and some are not.

Leadership is very important. I have been around so many schools

and what has struck me very forcibly is that way you have a

head teacher told resits the value of sport, for itself, and also the

academic value because we know that schools they give sport priority

get an academic benefit from it as well. Where there is that

leadership it really happens. you telling them to do it or is it

a voluntary thing? We are all pushing in the same direction.

There is a lot of encouragement around p and active schools. They

are all involved in that Met work. Sport Scotland is very much at its

heart and we have never had that joined-up thinking before. We are

making sure what is happening everywhere in every school. That is

what I want to see and that is my aim. You are currently, as a

government, reviewing a implementation of a deal that was

put in place to provide teachers with fair terms and conditions. Is

getting them to participate more in organising school sports something

that you would like to see as sports minister? A lot of teachers

are already very much involved in school sports. We have to do what

works and what is working really well... Would you like to see more

of them involved? Of course I would like to see more schools doing that

and we have to make sure that we do what works and what works is the

active schools network. Teachers and parents are supporting 5

million sporting opportunities last year. That is a tremendous success

story. That is all voluntary, are you prepared to tell them that this

is what we want from the schools. There is nothing wrong with

voluntary effort from sport. Sport is based on voluntary effort and

all the hours people give. That enthusiasm from those teachers and

parents and coaches put across from -- to the kids is so important.

They must have a good experience when they turn us up the clubbers

so they are high -- so that is working. The success of that as we

get towards the Commonwealth Games in two years' time will be there

for all to save. The debate, like the Games, will continue. Thank you

very much indeed. That is it from me. A quick look at the papers.