Costs sink swim programmes
School pool closures, swimmingrelated costs and the curriculum is affecting the ability of Kiwi children to swim, says Water Safety NZ chief executive officer Jonty Mills.
Just over a quarter of schools taught children ‘‘adequate’’ and basic lifesaving skills such as floating, with about 75 per cent of schools not able to provide the minimum recommended lessons for students, he said.
The number of schools that provided lessons had crept up since 2001 but the time spent in the water had reduced by up to four hours each year. That could affect a child’s skills, Mills said.
‘‘The three biggest barriers for an aquatic education are cost, transport and access to facilities.’’
Rata School principal Dave Appleyard said the Lower Hutt school offered twice the number of recommended lessons, however it was hard to ensure every child could take part.
Most days children turned up without swimwear. Many just did not own a swimsuit, he said.
In the past five years, about 165 school pools have closed and about 135 are at risk of closing because of health and safety, or maintenance costs.
Newtown School principal Mark Brown said teaching children to be safe around the water was more important than ever with more schools welcoming families emigrating from countries with forgiving aquatic conditions, or limited access to water. The school recently received a $500,000 grant from the Wellington City Council to fix its decaying pool but many others were not so lucky, he said.
Half an hour outside of Whangarei, Poroti School has battled to keep its communitybuilt pool open. With 37 children on the roll, principal Pauline Johnson said government funding did not stretch far enough. Last year the school was forced to shut the pool for the season and its future looked grim, Johnson said. Children in Poroti had access to secluded swimming holes so they needed to be water savvy, she said.
Ministry of Education early learning and student achievement associate deputy secretary Pauline Cleaver said schools were required to provide all students with opportunities to learn basic aquatic skills by the end of year 6.
But those lessons varied from school to school because each designed their own.
‘‘While we don’t ask schools to report to us on the progress of students, we do expect that schools will inform caregivers and wha¯ nau about their child’s progress as part of their regular reporting.’’ Cleaver admitted pools were expensive to build and maintain which led more schools to use community facilities.
Mills said students were ‘‘missing out’’ because of pressures on the education system. If a school could not provide lessons, parents were forced to find private tuition.
However, there was a chunk’’ of the population ‘‘simply can’t afford that’’.
Discussions with the Government were ongoing to ensure the long-term sustainability of the water safety sector, he said.
There have been 237 drownings of people aged up to 24 years between 2008 and 2017.
A study from Otago University in 2017 found that, of 48 children aged from 6 to 11 in eight schools around Dunedin, 62 per cent were unable to swim 100 metres.
Water Safety NZ has been raising money for its Water Skills For Life programme with a Givealittle page. ‘‘big that