Swim lessons up 20 per cent, but primary kids still left behind
A new Royal Life Saving Society Australia (RLS) special report on learn-to-swim shows encouraging trends on children returning to swimming lessons since the covid pandemic restrictions were lifted.
An estimated 1.7 million children are now in lessons, a 20 per cent increase on pre-pandemic enrolments.
RLS chief executive officer Justin Scarr says this represents an additional 300,000 children in lessons compared to pre-pandemic levels, with the growth most evident among preschool age groups.
However, this growth is not enough to offset missed lessons in seven-to 12-year-old children – meaning at least 100,000 children in late primary school years are unlikely to return to lessons before high school.
Scarr says the lack of water safety lessons for those older children heightens the drowning risk this summer, and in the years to come.
“The importance of school aged children returning swimming and water safety programs cannot be overstated. It is critical that we have a medium-term national plan to get seven- and 12-year-old children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds back into lessons.”
He adds that the significant growth in enrolments of children aged under four may reflect the availability of swimming vouchers for preschool children, particularly in New South Wales and parental interest in Queensland.
RLS recommends a national action plan to address kids who miss out of learning to swimming to swim should at least include strategies to:
• Strengthen existing school and vacation programs
• Increase participation, especially of those most at-risk through targeted programs
• Promote and track national swimming and water safety benchmarks
• Increase lifesaving and water safety skills in teenagers
• Address infrastructure gaps, build and/or upgrade aquatic centres and swim schools
Swim it Forward
Meanwhile, Swim Australia is trying address the decline in school age swim lessons – and increase swim lesson participation generally – through their Swim It Forward campaign.
Their research shows that more than half (55%) of all Australian children are not learning to swim due to the cost to enrol in lessons and in recent times more than 8 million swimming lessons were missed due to covid.
Swim It Forward is an initiative to take the financial barrier out of the equation and get more disadvantaged Australian families enrolled in swimming lessons at their local swim school.
For every child they help place into a learn-to-swim program, the lower the risk of drowning deaths, and greater the children’s confidence in the water.
You can Swim it Forward and donate lessons to make swimming a child’s superpower!
$20 will provide one lesson to a child
$200 will provide a child with lessons for one term
$800 will provide a child with lessons for a whole year
