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Benjamin Disraeli once said: "The essence of education is the education of the body." Yet is sport being ignored as a way of educating young people and improving the quality of life of disabled people? Graham Hopkins reports.

Jamie Lynch (not his real name) is a 12-year-old foster child. He doesn't like school much. And he really hates maths. He becomes irritable and aggressive at his own inability to work out, for example, his times tables and is regularly excluded for such outbursts of frustration. But ask him how many points would his favourite team, Tottenham Hotspur, have if they had won six games, drawn three and lost four, and he replies, somewhat disdainfully, "21 points from 13 games? Not exactly championship form. Again."

For children and young people, sport has a powerful ability to educate. And it can appeal directly to people like Jamie who are further disadvantaged by exclusion from school - incidences of which have risen four-fold through the 1990s. Children in care are 10 times more likely to be excluded than their classmates. Similarly, black children are more than three times as likely to be excluded as white children. In all, nearly 75 per cent of those leaving care at 16 do so without a qualification - compared with 4 per cent of the population as a whole.¹

The Playing for Success scheme is one attempt to exploit the attraction of sport - in this case, football. The Department for Education and Skills joined forces with Premiership and football league clubs to set up classrooms - study support centres - in their stadiums. The scheme is aimed at disaffected children, or "underachievers" in government-speak - a badge, if ever one was needed, for looked-after children. The aim is to develop their confidence, self-esteem and motivation. Leeds United Football Club runs one in partnership with Leeds Council.

The club's Elland Road stadium shines with success and wealth in an area of disaffection and disadvantage: 45 per cent of households in the inner south Leeds area are on benefits; 12 per cent of the local population are from ethnic minorities; and 43 per cent of pupils fall below level four (the level of achievement expected for their age) in maths, and English at key stage two (pupils aged 8-11).

The study centre is based under the south stand and has three rooms: a cyber caf‚, IT suite and project room. It was designed, decorated and furnished by another partner - IKEA, which as part of its own staff development programme releases staff to support children on courses.

The walls are filled with large photographs of players, "not in posing positions, but demonstrating skill, effort and celebrating achievement," says Steve Smith, study support manager. "By creating this atmosphere we aim to give each person a new challenge and fresh identity as a learner." There were concerns that the centre would only attract white boys interested in football. But there have been equal numbers of boys and girls, of whom about 10 per cent are from ethnic minorities.

"There is little doubt in my mind that the pull of Leeds United has significant impact on local young people," adds Smith. "Success by association is a powerful, motivating tool. Children feel special by attending the centre." The involvement of children often engages parents, particularly fathers, to take an interest in learning - something Smith says has a significant effect on children's motivation.

Naturally, there are strong public relations and business benefits for the football clubs involved. They can be seen to be giving something back to their own communities while developing a brand loyalty and fan base for the future.

But while sport can offer a stimulating learning environment, it is the taking part that has the most to offer. Sport has long been out of the blocks in the race against social exclusion. It can offer a healthy lifestyle alternative to drug misuse and crime - an antidote to anti-social behaviour. Chris Goldie, national director of the charity SportsAid, argues: "We are absolutely convinced that providing young people, particularly those in areas of deprivation and those with behavioural problems, with sporting opportunities is hugely important to encourage these youngsters to become responsible members of our society."

The government agrees. It claims sport can contribute to neighbourhood renewal by improving communities' "performance" on four key indicators - health, crime, employment and education.²

Fair play. But surely even those in sport know there may be a gulf between the sea of theory and the dry land of achievement - between what it can do on those muddied, non-level playing fields of wider social development and what it does do.

Unfortunately, as it has never been monitored or evaluated in any reliable way or systematic way, no-one can be sure of sport's achievements. It possibly achieves little on its own. It needs sound and effective teamwork with others, such as recreation, community education, neighbourhood regeneration and youth services to ensure longer-lasting success.

Sport encourages young people to take control of their own bodies, making them feel better about themselves, which, naturally, can improve their well-being and self-esteem. But when it comes to active participation, choice is a big factor. Unfortunately, the least active and least healthy children are unlikely to turn to sport or physical recreation through their own choice.

Nonetheless, the success of any sports participation for young people is dependent on reassurance that "people just like them" take part, enjoy themselves and even excel. This was certainly the inspiration behind the launch, in April 2000, of Wimbledon Disabled Football Club - a partnership between the Limbless Association and Wimbledon FC. Professional coaches from the club take junior and senior team training weekly and matches are arranged.

Sam Gallop, double amputee, ex-pilot and chairperson of the Limbless Association, says: "Professional footballers are the idols of disabled kids everywhere. They are showing them the way to integrated sport above and beyond their disabilities."

However, look down that integrated way and you'll see anything but an easy ride in prospect. Martin McElhatton, chief executive of the British Wheelchair Sports Foundation, is dismayed at the current state of play: "With many children in mainstream schools the provision of sport for children with disabilities is poor. This could be improved by making it mandatory for any child with a disability to be offered an appropriate sporting opportunity."

That disabled young people are largely excluded from sport was proven last year by a Sport England survey Young People with a Disability and Sport^.3 This report - tellingly the first of its kind - shows that while the desire to participate in sport is high (only 10 per cent said they lacked the desire or motivation to do so), opportunities to do so are scarce. As many as 45 per cent of all young disabled people are receiving less than one hour physical education per week at school - compared with 18 per cent of non-disabled people. This figure rises alarmingly to 53 per cent in primary schools. More than one in four young disabled people take no part in sport in or out of school.

In response, sports minister Richard Caborn delivered the "Yes, we've got much to do" line with aplomb. But Dennis Hodgkins, regional development manager for the English Federation of Disability Sports, believes those responsible for developing sports should be made more accountable: "If a sport has a governing body that controls and develops that sport for everyone in the community, why has disabled people's involvement been minimal or in many cases nil? If these bodies renege on conditions by which they are funded, then the funds should be removed and they should be named and shamed."

And there's no prize money for guessing that sport is still on the bench when it comes to finance. As Goldie says: "It's hard to believe that the government of a country that has footballers earning £50,000 a week spends less than £1 per person per week on sport."

With so little money available, sport is chronically dependent on volunteers. And while this encourages the noble notion of community participation, it also opens the field to the less than noble. Sport can provide easy access for abusers. A study in Norway in 2000 showed that 51 per cent of athletes had experienced sexual harassment or abuse. Last year another study, this time in Australia, showed that 21.9 per cent of elite athletes had experienced abuse in their lives, half of which occurred in sport. It is felt that UK research, commissioned this year, will serve only to confirm the worst suspicions.

As the leader of the country's leading sport, the Football Association has recognised its duty to protect children. The FA, in partnership with the NSPCC, has made child protection a mandatory element in coaching courses, medical education courses and referee training. "It's important," says Tony Pickerin, head of child protection and education at the FA, "that football becomes more enjoyable and safer for young people."

And while football provides young people with waves of role models, the sport has seen those waves crash with alarming regularity. "All youngsters need heroes and sport provides them. But those heroes must be aware of their need to behave, as well as perform, heroically," says Goldie.

Disabled people also look to their own champions for inspiration. "By trying a range of sports under the guidance of experienced coaches and senior athletes, the young people are given role models, heroes and heroines to aspire to," says McElhatton.

One such is Tanni Grey-Thompson, OBE, Britain's most famous paralympian gold medallist: "We need to tackle the situation now, to allow opportunities to be improved at all levels and to provide a range of sporting chances to be given to all youngsters both within and beyond the education system," she says.

The potential of sport is there for all to see. It's more than just a healthy pastime. It has the ability to educate. PE, after all, stands for physical education. And sport can stand for self-esteem, participation, opportunity, respect and tolerance. Perhaps it should stand for parliament, too. As Jim Parry, sports ethics expert at Leeds University, says: "Globally it is a force for good in the world, proving that despite our differences, we are pretty much the same. It contributes to mutual understanding and brings people together under a system of agreed rules. If only politics could achieve so much!"

One politician who has tried to achieve those ideals is the former South African president Nelson Mandela, who in fighting for a definition of the potential of sport certainly came off the fence: "Sport has the power to change the world, the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else can. It speaks to people in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where there was once only despair. It breaks down all racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all kinds of discrimination...spreading hope to the world." And, when it comes to hope, sport, like the boy Mandela, has done brilliant.

¹ Social Exclusion Unit, Raising the Educational Attainment of Children in Care, Cabinet Office, October 2001

² Policy Action Team 10 report, Arts and Sport, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, 1999

³ Naomi Finch ed, Young People with a Disability and Sport, Sport England, 2001

Results round up

Sport can provide:

- Leadership.

- A decrease in truancy.

- A meeting place.

- A "meaning" to life.

- The means to take responsibility for own health.

- An opportunity to learn social skills - tolerance, respect for others.

- Something constructive to do.

- A means of releasing stress.

- An opportunity for racial integration.

- Improved quality of life.

- Self-esteem, self-confidence and self-discipline.

- A reduction in vandalism and crime.

- Improved mental health - it can reduce depression.

- Active citizenship through volunteering.

- A shared sense of belonging, a common purpose.

- It gives people something to talk about.