Treading water on swim lessons
THE Victorian Government has doubled the amount of money it is spending making kids safe in the water, while its Queensland ALP counterpart continues to tread water over compulsory swimming lessons in schools.
The Andrews ALP Government announced Victorian schools will get an extra $9.8 million to help contribute to the cost of swimming lessons over the next two years, increasing the support provided to each Year 6 student from $50 to $90.
Victorian Education Minister James Merlino said the Government was making sure kids could swim in an effort to reduce the number of drowning deaths.
The move will support up to 60,000 students at government and Catholic schools to achieve their Victorian School Water Safety Certificate, which includes being able to swim 50m continuously, before leaving primary school – one of the models backed by experts in The Chronicle’s Save Our Schoolkids campaign.
The Victorian investment now tops $18.9 million, while Queensland can point to little more than Education Minister Grace Grace’s roundtable of experts she was forced to convene in the wake of the Save Our Schoolkids campaign.
They are set to meet again next month and again in June before a final report in August.
Veteran swimming teacher Pamela Godsall-Smith, who has been teaching kids who to swim and save themselves since 1964, said she backed anything that would make children safer in the water.
“It’s an essential skill,” the owner of Shapland Sinnamon Park Swim School said.
“I would back anything that would help reduce drowning percentages.”
Mrs Godsall-Smith averaged 10 children a year who had used water safety skills learnt at her school to save themselves.
She said exposure to the water was essential for children of different backgrounds who weren’t accustomed to it. School lessons would not be easy but children needed water safety skills that some time-poor parents could not give them.
Mr Merlino described swimming as a “crucial life skill”.
“We want to make sure all Victorian children know how to swim and stay safe in the water before they finish primary school,” he said.
Ms Grace said it was important all children learn to swim as soon as possible but said she’d be waiting for the roundtable to report back.
“The next meeting of the Roundtable will be held on 20 April and I look forward to again hearing from all stakeholders.
“We take this issue very seriously. Already, 98 per cent of Queensland state schools offer a Learn to Swim program.