Sport Otago is launching a sport activator programme as it tries to get more primary school children playing sport.
Though there are no accurate figures available on sport participation at primary school, Sport Otago programme director Richard Kinley said one of the aims of Sport Otago was to get as many children playing sport as possible.
"We often hear of the drop-off of kids in sport at secondary school level and then when they leave school, but if you have not got the numbers playing sport at primary school, then you are in trouble to start with," Kinley said.
"Though there has never been a national survey on what is the participation rates for primary school children across New Zealand, we did one at a large primary school in Dunedin."
Kinley said the result was surprising and was another reason for the new programme.
The survey showed 25% of children at the school did not play any sport at all while another 30% played just one sport throughout the year.
"So that is more than 50% of children playing only one sport [or none] ..
"That may only be something like tee ball once a week in summer and then nothing for the rest of the year."
In a paper outlining the programme, Kinley said while many of Dunedin's primary schools were doing a good job of delivering sporting opportunities to their pupils, anecdotal evidence indicated it had become increasingly difficult for them to do so for a variety of reasons.
There were shortened lunch hours, additional curriculum requirements and a decreasing number of parents or teachers prepared to give up their free time to be team coaches and managers.
Kinley said surveys of pupils showed many wanted to play sport but did not get enough exposure to their preferred choice.
That was often not the fault of the sport concerned, as they only had limited resources to devote to children.
"Many sports may only be able to go along to a school for one session and though many pupils will take up that sport, there may be a lot more who need to gain a bit more confidence to get involved in the sport.
"They would benefit from a few more lessons of the sport."
Three sport activators would be employed to cover three areas: Green Island, South Otago and West Dunedin, which covered schools from Balaclava to Maori Hill.
They would teach sporting skills to pupils, help staff with coaching and link up schools with sporting clubs in their area.
Funding of each position was about $25,000 annually, provided from Sparc and Sport Otago.
If the programme was a success, it would be spread across Otago.
The hope was obviously to get more children involved in sport.
He said the directive from Sparc had moved away from an emphasis on the push-play message to participating in sport through local club membership.
