SELF-defence and karate classes must be rolled out as part of the school curriculum to help protect children on the streets of Basildon, a leading Tory has insisted.

Karate, martial arts, boxing, and self defence classes are usually held at leisure centres or as an after school club, to the cost of parents.

However, it has been claimed they must be added to the curriculum to teach valuable lessons in self-control, discipline, and street safety.

Charlie Sansom, the chairman of the South Basildon Conservatives, has now written to Will Quince MP, Minister for Children and Families, urging for the classes to be added to PE lessons.

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He said: “I do believe that skills for our kids to protect themselves growing into adulthood to be paramount in an increasingly unpredictable British society.

“I think that a lot of personal safety training, self-defence, and boxing, could be taught within PE lessons so as not to add an extra cost burden on the state but can reassure parents of their children’s ability to protect themselves, or at least have the knowledge, if they have to and give kids a greater sense of confidence if they find themselves in dangerous situations.”

Introducing self defence into the school curriculum was debated in Parliament just weeks before lockdown in March 2020.

Sue Jackson, headteacher at the Lee Chapel Primary School, said: “We hire out the sports hall to karate and classes like that, and a lot are held after school.

“There might not be enough time in the day for it as part of PE, what with our other sports and vital swimming classes.

“They’re our priority at the moment.”

Tony Ball, Essex County councillor in charge of education, who held a meeting with Mr Sansom to discuss the curriculum, added: “Ultimately it’s for the schools and Government to decide.

“Schools do a lot already after school for this, but that does come at a cost for parents.

“There’s a lot of factors to consider.

“We want to be encouraging people to do self-defence, and not take that into fighting.”