Nearly half of Aussie year six students can’t tread water for two minutes or swim 50 metres according to new research by Royal Life Saving Australia.
The study found kids’ swimming skills have gone down nationwide for a number of reasons including the cost of living, with less and less people able to afford lessons.
Hear more from today’s headlines on The Briefing:
Another reason was because over a third of schools don’t offer learn to swim programs at all.
Parents not having enough time to take their kids to lessons was also a contributor.
Now, the national guidelines say we should have these basic skills by the time we’re about 12, but the teachers who were surveyed estimated nearly half of their classes weren’t able to.
That didn’t improve much by the time they were in year 10, when students are normally about 15 or 16.
What can be done to address the issue?
Royal Life Saving is calling on the government to help schools pay for programs and also offer grants to vulnerable groups.
Spending on more public swimming pools is another idea to provide more access to pools.
Latest stats we have show a 16 per cent increase in fatal drownings across Australia.
Float to Survive campaign launched in 2022 to teach people how to float and provide simple messaging for immigrants.
They’ve said parents play a really crucial role in their kids swimming education.
Subscribe to The Briefing, Australia’s fastest-growing news podcast on Listnr today. The Briefing serves up the latest news headlines and a deep dive into a topic affecting you. All in under 20 minutes.