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20 December 2010
Last updated at 07:09 ET
Education Secretary Michael Gove is set to partially back down over his decision to scrap the £162m Schools Sports Partnership in England.
He will announce plans to salvage over £70m from his department budget to make sure the partnership survives, saving about 4,000 administrators' jobs.
Teachers and athletes, such as Olympic star Denise Lewis, mounted a strong campaign against the original decision.
Ministers had called the partnership scheme a "complete failure".
The Schools Sports Partnership supports joint initiatives between primary, secondary and specialist state schools designed to increase sporting opportunities for children.
'Local level' concern Prime Minister David Cameron and other ministers said the scheme had not increased participation sufficiently.
But he said the decision to scrap it would be reconsidered after concern at "local level".
The BBC understands that some of the £70m will be used to pay for the government's new Schools Olympics, designed to increase competitiveness in school sports.
More than 70 top British athletes, including Olympic heptathlon champion Lewis and world diving champion Tom Daley, wrote to Mr Cameron saying that ending the partnerships was "ill-conceived" and risked efforts to deliver a "genuine legacy" from the 2012 London Olympics, in terms of encouraging sports participation.
BBC sports editor David Bond said the backlash had caught the government by surprise, adding: "Even after Cameron had signalled he was having a rethink, school children, head teachers and leading athletes kept up the pressure."
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He will announce plans to salvage over £70m from his department budget to make sure the partnership survives, saving about 4,000 administrators' jobs.
Teachers and athletes, such as Olympic star Denise Lewis, mounted a strong campaign against the original decision.
Ministers had called the partnership scheme a "complete failure".
The Schools Sports Partnership supports joint initiatives between primary, secondary and specialist state schools designed to increase sporting opportunities for children.
'Local level' concern Prime Minister David Cameron and other ministers said the scheme had not increased participation sufficiently.
But he said the decision to scrap it would be reconsidered after concern at "local level".
The BBC understands that some of the £70m will be used to pay for the government's new Schools Olympics, designed to increase competitiveness in school sports.
More than 70 top British athletes, including Olympic heptathlon champion Lewis and world diving champion Tom Daley, wrote to Mr Cameron saying that ending the partnerships was "ill-conceived" and risked efforts to deliver a "genuine legacy" from the 2012 London Olympics, in terms of encouraging sports participation.
BBC sports editor David Bond said the backlash had caught the government by surprise, adding: "Even after Cameron had signalled he was having a rethink, school children, head teachers and leading athletes kept up the pressure."
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