Major schools' sporting carnival at Perry Lakes

4/7/93

The biggest single schools' sporting carnival to be held in Western Australia this year will start on Monday at Perry Lakes as part of Country Week.

The 1993 Commonwealth Bank Country Senior High Schools carnival - involving football, hockey, basketball and volleyball - will also be the biggest event of its kind in WA for the past 60 years.

Education Minister Norman Moore said today the historic five-day carnival would involve more than 3,500 students from 40 country-based Senior High and District High Schools.

"The amazing spirit of the country week sporting carnival is one which I hope will live on through a continuing interest in physical education and sport in primary schools across the State," Mr Moore said.

"A recent Senate inquiry has found, however, that Australian school students are generally fatter and less fit than in previous generations, and I am awaiting a report on how we can boost the prominence of organised physical education in Western Australian schools."

The carnival, co-ordinated by the WA Schools' Sports Association, was organised by a volunteer group of teachers together with representatives from State sporting organisations.

Mr Moore said the first recorded sporting competition between country schools in Perth was held 60 years ago, but only involved the Albany, Bunbury, Kent Street and Perth Modern Schools.

The carnival was extended to include netball and hockey in the 1940s, and more recently, basketball and volleyball.

To coincide with the carnival, Edith Cowan University would offer special science-enrichment programs to selected students from participating schools.

These would give those students access to a range of activities not usually available to country schools, particularly remote ones.

Mr Moore said exhibition games would also be held during the week by top athletes and some students would take part in coaching programs with elite sporting teams.

Speech and debating competitions would be run at the Superdrome in conjunction with the carnival.

Media contact: Ross Storey 321 1444 or 222 9595