Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, told the Daily Telegraph he wants to the event to be more based around individual schools.

 

The UK School Games, conceived by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown and Sports Minister Richard Caborn after London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics, features teams representing regions.

 

Hunt wants schools to compete against each other in a variety of events at local, county and regional levels, before a national championships was held in a major UK city.

 

At the culmination of the Games, one school would be crowned with the accolade of the sportiest in the country.

 

Hunt told the Daily Telegraph: "We all know how important competitive sport is in teaching children about values like discipline and picking yourself up when things go wrong.

 

"But the best way to make sure it really takes root in our schools is by tapping into the competitive instincts all schools have to do well against their rivals.

 

"At the moment school sport league tables are patchy at best - a more rigorous system would allow the return of national school sports championships in many more sports."

 

The last UK Schools Games were held in Bristol and Bath in August, and featured nine sports including athletics, hockey, swimming and table tennis.

 

They were first staged in Glagsow in 2006 and in Coventry in 2007.

 

Hunt said that the Games would be far more meaningful if schools were pitted against each other, rather than the competition being open only to children who were already elite athletes.

 

To read the full article visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/3948917/Tories-propose-schools-Olympics.html.