Sports Colleges are senior secondary schools which promote sports alongside secondary education.

United Kingdom

Sports Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the

Specialist Schools Programme The specialist schools programme (SSP), first launched as the Technology Colleges programme and also known as the specialist schools initiative, specialist schools policy and specialist schools scheme, was a government programme in the United ...

in the United Kingdom. The programme enabled

secondary schools A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

to specialise in certain fields, in this case, PE,

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

and

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

. Schools that successfully applied to the

Specialist Schools Trust SSAT (The Schools Network) Limited (branded as SSAT, the Schools, Students and Teachers network) is a UK-based, independent educational membership organisation working with primary, secondary, special and free schools, academies and UTCs. It ...

and became Sports Colleges received extra funding from this joint private sector and government scheme. Sports Colleges act as a local point of reference for other schools and businesses in the area, with an emphasis on promoting sports within the community. The Specialist Schools Programme ended in 2011 after the change of government. Despite this, schools can still become Sports Colleges through the Dedicated Schools Grant or academisation.

India

The first Sports College was started in the Indian city of

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

in 1975. These are senior secondary schools affiliated with state board of examinations and run by state governments. At present, the state of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

has two sports college and the state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

has three.

References

Education in the United Kingdom Physical education in India 1997 introductions Specialist schools programme {{UK-edu-stub