Richard Caborn

Sports minister Richard Caborn has been criticised after he endorsed a campaign encouraging children to buy 160 million bars in return for "free" sports equipment for their schools.

In its press release, chocolate manufacturer Cadbury quotes Caborn as saying that he is "delighted that Cadbury is prepared to support a drive [which] could make a real difference to the quality of young people's lives".

Under the scheme, to earn one netball worth about £5 primary school children would have to spend nearly £40 on chocolate and consume more than 20,000 calories.

A spokesman for the DCMS said: ""We support Paula Radcliffe's view that this campaign is about encouragingchildren to eat chocolate in the context of an active life. The facts are that children will always eat some chocolate - the aim of this campaign is to help get more kids involved in playing sport, and keeping fit and active at the same time."

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Sheila Dainton, ATL education policy adviser, told ePolitix.com: "It is disappointing to see that a company founded on 19th century Quaker principles is behaving in such a commercially unethical and irresponsible way.

"At best, it is a cynical ploy to sell more chocolate dreamed up by a marketing whiz-kid.

"The government has got to come clean. Either it supports the Healthy School scheme, set up jointly by the Department of Health and the Department for education and Skills, or it doesn't.

"Perhaps the sports minister should talk to his colleagues in other departments before backing this initiative."

Forum Response: Consumers' Association

Sheila McKechnie, director of the Consumers' Association, said: "Linking exercise to the consumption of chocolate is nothing short of a scandal. While it is fine to indulge once in a while, this type of corporate exploitation of children has to stop.

"This isn't social responsibility it is social negligence. If Cadbury genuinely cares about the health of children it should donate the sports equipment rather then using it as an excuse to encourage children to shovel chocolate down their throats.

"Already one in five children under four are overweight and one in ten are classed as obese. This scheme is only likely to exacerbate the problem by insinuating to children that eating chocolate is a healthy food.

"If the government does not take immediate action to stop these companies then who knows what we will see next - schemes linking chip butties to better fitness levels?"

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

Jean Gemmell, general secretary of the PAT, told ePolitix.com: "School children do not spend their pocket money to collect tokens for their schools. They buy the things they wish to buy. In this case, schools will, I'm sure, welcome the extra equipment if it is made available through the purchase of products children would be buying anyway.

"There seems to be some hype about the statistics. When you look at the figures, 5400 chocolate bars equate, in a school of 1000 pupils, to only five and a half bars per pupil. This represents one bar a week for five and a half weeks for the school to get its goalposts.

"Tokens don't make children eat chocolate, but the equipment might help them to burn off the effects of eating it.

"We are, however, worried about the increasing involvement of commercial marketing in education. Businesses are not charities. Their priority is profit, and we don't want to see a situation where we have profit for businesses but loss for education. We have no wish to see commercialisation destroying the integrity of education. This 'free' equipment would then come at a heavy price.

"In a state education system, school equipment should be funded by local authorities and the government, accepting that extra equipment has long been purchased by fund-raising activities undertaken by schools and their support networks."

Forum Response: National Consumer Council

A spokesperson for the National Consumer Council said: "Regardless of the freebies associated with this offer, the NCC is concerned that this campaign is encouraging people to increase the amount of sugar and fat in their diet.

"More worryingly is the fact that children are increasingly being exposed to and targeted by such campaigns.

"The timing of the Cadbury's campaign is unfortunate given the WHO's recently published recommendations on diet and nutrition, and the growing concerns about obesity in our society."What this campaign highlights is the need for the government to continue to promote its healthy eating messages in schools, and develop effective guidelines so that the marketing of food to children is consistent with these key messages."