McCully: No losers in sports shake-up

Sports Minister Murray McCully has promised that no schools will end up worse off under the Government's Kiwisport scheme.

High school principals reacted angrily when they learned that most lower-decile schools would get less money to hire sports co-ordinators.

They were advised to apply to regional sports trusts for extra funding but told that some might have to share staff with other local schools.

Rural schools have also complained that they are in line for less money.

Mr McCully said he had no intention of making any school worse off, as the Government was substantially increasing the amount of money available for school sport.

"When you're spreading over $20 million around where there used to be $5.3 million, we can make sure there are no losers."

He said the Sportfit programme, which currently provided money for sports co-ordinators in 413 secondary schools, would continue until the end of the year.

That gave schools about four months to work out replacement details with regional sports trusts. If they wanted to keep sports co-ordinators, he expected the trusts would make sure this happened with a minimum of bureaucracy.

He refused to guarantee that each school would be able to keep its own dedicated staff member but said he was not trying to get rid of the old system.

"I don't want to start a programme that is designed to increase sporting participation and spread it to every school in the country by discontinuing positions that are already there.

"I'm not hostile to the Sportfit programme, never have been. I'm simply concerned that we should do something across the board that is available to all kids, rather than provide support for a targeted group of schools."

Auckland Secondary Schools Heads Association president Byron Bentley said it was still difficult to understand how the new system would work and why the Government was so keen to make changes.

"It's not clear to us how that shortfall is going to be made up and how we are going to access it. Who's going to decide, and should it be anyone outside the sector?"