Most of our children cannot swim to save themselves – Sydney Morning Herald

For a country that prides itself as a swimming nation it comes as a shock: the Royal Life Saving Society Australia (RLSSA) estimates 83 per cent of 12-year-olds cannot tread water for two minutes. And 40 per cent cannot freestyle or backstroke for 50 metres or even dog paddle 25 metres.

A shortage of swimming teachers, the cost of private tuition and an estimated loss of 10 million swimming lessons over the years of pandemic, bushfire and flooding rain has created a generation with limited water sense and abilities and a dawning recognition that something has gone amiss with what was once a birthright for many Australian children.

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They not only seem to have lost the knack, but Olympic champion Dr Shane Gould told the Herald’s Julie Power something may be wrong with the way swimming is taught. She said that given the high numbers of people who can’t swim proficiently we need to recalibrate how we teach swimming, because the dunking of babies and children in swimming classes to encourage them to hold their breath can often traumatise them.

Gould, who holds a PhD related to a study of swimming culture in Australia, together with her husband, swimming coach Milt Nelms, told the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in Perth there was a gap in the way swimming is taught. Tension and fear is caused by a focus on submersion before someone learning to swim has come to understand their body’s natural buoyancy. As a result, many swimmers hold their breath, causing CO₂ to build up which saps energy and causes panic.

For the rest of us, national benchmarks for water safety stipulate half of people aged 17 and over should be able to swim 400 metres, as well as safely rescue another person in the water. By age 12, children should be able to swim continuously for 50 metres.

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The NSW Department of Education’s School Swimming and Water Safety program has been providing opportunities for public schools and students since 1954. Although the department said 92 per cent of schools participated it does not provide information on student numbers. The government also provides $50 vouchers for primary schoolers’ swimming lessons with approved providers.

Against that, a 2018 report by the RLSSA on private swimming school lessons has estimated three out of four children quit swimming classes by age eight, long before they had learned the skills to save their lives. There is little evidence that things have changed much.

In fact, Joanne Love, the president of Swim Coaches and Teachers Australia, said the biggest thing affecting children’s swimming abilities was that COVID-19 had interrupted swimming lessons, with many children never to return. “We have children who have not been in the water for four or five years. Some of them are nine or 10 and they’ve never even dipped their toes in water,” she said.

This summer is already proving to be a grim one for drownings. RLSSA statistics show 42 drowning deaths since December, compared with 38 at the same point in the summer of 2022-23. Nine people have drowned on NSW waterways: tourists and new arrivals were among the victims which suggests campaigns about the dangers of rips, swimming between the flags and other water survival guides are missing those who most need to be targeted.

But many who drown are Australian residents, fluent in English and complacency. The revelation that most of our children cannot swim to save themselves is another manifestation of that complacency. Governments must recognise that the token swimming lessons they receive in most schools amounts to an underfunded travesty that needs reform as a matter of life and death.

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