UK Education Minister Gives Chess a Boost, 30 June 2003 [30/06/03]
Charles Clarke, the UK Education Secretary, has talked about giving chess
a boost in British schools in terms of setting up more school chess clubs
and encouraging inter-schools competitions. Mr Clarke, whose father Sir
Richard Clarke, a high-ranking civil servant, was a very keen player and
played a big part in inventing and developing England's chess grading
system, has discussed the promotion of chess in schools with the British
Chess Federation. Charles Clarke himself plays the game and keeps a chess
set in his ministerial office which was presented to him by the National
Union of Students when he retired as their president in 1977.
BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme picked up the theme
of 'chess in schools' on 30 June when chess-playing LibDem MP, Dr Evan
Harris, and 13-year-old England junior squad member, Naomi Miller, were
interviewed by John Humphries on morning radio. They then played a game
(off-air) and returned an hour later to announce that Naomi had triumphed
over the MP. Dr Evan Harris joked with Humphries about his familiarity
with defeat at the polls but 'at least chess is a level playing field
unlike the British electoral system'. The programme closed with the chess-loving
MP putting in a plea for lottery funding for chess in the UK. This gets
to the nub of the problem: despite Education secretary Clarke's undoubted
goodwill towards chess, there is to be no extra funding for chess, nor
is it to be included in the curriculum. Link
to Sunday Telegraph article on Charles Clarke's discussions with the BCF.
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