Physical education is to be reintroduced as a stand-alone subject, sport minister Zizi Kodwa announced at the end of his department’s school sports indaba in Johannesburg on Friday.

“We commit ourselves to reintroduce physical education as a stand-alone subject,” he told delegates before signing a declaration with department of basic education representative Sifiso Ngobese and SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president Barry Hendricks.

The plan was to get children playing regularly, for at least two hours a week. “School sport must be educator driven.”

There are sectors who argue that physical education and healthy exercise are key aspects for child development.

Kodwa said the school sport plan should seek to redress sport from being “minority based to a majority-inclusive programme”.

The agreement requires closer collaboration between the two departments and building facilities to optimise opportunities for schoolchildren.

He said suitable models between private-public partnerships should be investigated.

The plan is also to create a macro-body that would be supported by the two departments and Sascoc.

Kodwa also announced a panel of experts and “not politicians” would be sent to Jamaica to study their systems where school sport is part of community development.

Hendricks described the indaba as a “resounding success”.

“The department of education is a key stakeholder in us going forward and to the success of this project.

“But in terms of school sports it has become clear that physical education is a necessity.

“Several timelines have been mentioned during the deliberations, ranging from three to five years,” Hendricks said, reiterating that it takes 14 years to develop an elite athlete from scratch.

Ngobese declined to give a firm timeline for the reintroduction of physical education, which currently forms part of life orientation, saying that would be handled by another section in the department tasked with drawing up curricula.