Claims that children in poorer schools will be worse off as a result of the Kiwisport policy announced this week are the result of selective and shonky number-crunching, says Sport and Recreation Minister Murray McCully.

“Every child in the country will have access to increased resources for organised sport under the new policy,” Mr McCully said.

“The facts are very simple:

• Until now, $5.3 million in government funding has been allocated to schools – all of it to secondary schools -- to fund sports coordinators.


• Under Kiwisport a total of over $20 million will be allocated next year.


• Currently primary schools receive no sports funding. Under Kiwisport they will receive $6 million next year on a strict per capita basis.


• Secondary schools will directly receive $6 million next year on a strict per capita basis.


• Regional Sports Trusts will receive over $8 million of new money next year as part of Kiwisport, on top of the $18 million they already receive from the Government. This money is allocated on a per capita basis and is specifically targeted for partnerships with schools or groups of schools.

“Assertions in this morning’s NZ Herald that some poorer secondary schools will be worse off because Kiwisport is not funded according to decile ranking, as the current Sportfit programme is, ignore the new funding allocated to the regional trusts for school partnerships.

“Even taking the most extreme examples, every young New Zealander will attract significantly more funding than under the current system. Most will be substantially better off, as you would expect when the new programme will spend over $20 million per year compared to the existing $5.3 million.

“The new system will give schools and their partners more choices as to how the funding is spent, but I would expect that the provision of sports coordinators will be a top priority for the vast majority of schools.

“We have opted for the partnership approach because we see the potential for significantly more than the $20 million from Kiwisport being invested in sport for young New Zealanders.

“Schemes like Sir John Walker’s 'Find Your Field of Dreams' and Project Energise in the Waikato attract partnership from local authorities, District Health Boards, community trusts, and commercial businesses.

“The model we have selected lends itself to building good partnerships that are appropriate for particular schools or clusters of schools,” Mr McCully said.