Crack swimming squad to teach in Victorian primary schools as few kids able to swim 50m
You might think kids are learning the swimming skills they need at primary school, but an alarming revelation has prompted the Victorian government to take immediate action.
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EXCLUSIVE: Only one child in 20 received a water safety certificate to say they could swim 50m before finishing primary school last year.
The alarming revelation has prompted the Andrews Government to assemble a squad of 17 leading swimming teachers.
They will be sent out across the state to make sure schools are teaching water safety skills to their students and helping them reach the mandatory requirements.
FORTY DROWNINGS IN HORROR YEAR FOR VICTORIA
Education Minister James Merlino will announce the new swimming co-ordinators today.
The move comes during a deadly summer at Victoria’s beaches, lakes and rivers, with 23 people having drowned since the start of December.
Although more year 6 students are believed to have completed school swimming classes than have received water safety certificates, the government has admitted it has work to do to improve the compulsory program.
The program was introduced in 2016 after a Herald Sun campaign to help prevent children drowning.
About 4000 water safety certificates were issued in the first year, which tripled to 12,665 in 2017.
The proportion of schools offering swimming programs increased last year to 97 per cent, up from 91 per cent.
But only 4141 certificates were issued, with confusion over whether they were paper or online documents.
Mr Merlino told the Herald Sun thatthousands of kids were learning to swim but changes were needed to ensure all schools were following curriculum protocols.
“Every drowning death is one too many and nothing is more important than ensuring our kids are being taught this life-saving skill,” he said.
“We are leading the nation when it comes to delivering swimming in schools but we still want to do more.
“To further support our schools to deliver this program we will introduce swimming co-ordinators across the state.
“This will ensure there is an even greater focus on teaching our kids to swim, providing further support to teachers and schools.”
The swimming co-ordinators will help schools use a new online system to track how many students have successfully learned to swim.
Life Saving Victoria principal research associate Dr Bernadette Matthews said this year was set to be the worst for drowning deaths since 2000.
“These are worrying statistics and underscore the importance of the government’s investment towards swimming and water safety in schools,” she said.
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