The shadow minister for education has defended a radical new policy that would force children to play competitive sport at school.

The Coalition has unveiled a plan that would make inter-school sport mandatory for year 7 students.

It’s already drawn criticism, with one principal branding the plan “counterproductive”.

However, Tim Smith defended the idea on 3AW Mornings.

“We think that life lessons about winning and losing and playing by the rules of the game and building resilience is really important at school,” he told Neil Mitchell.

He said it would also have a positive health impact on students.

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