'Alarming' numbers of children failing swimming benchmarks spark calls for population-level initiatives
By Heloise Vyas
Topic:Children
14m ago14 minutes agoTue 18 Mar 2025 at 4:10am
A boy seen swimming underwater holding a floating board
Almost half of all Australian students aged 12 are failing to meet national standards for swimming and water safety. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)
In short:
Forty-eight per cent of year 6 students fail national standards for swimming and water safety, new research shows.
There is little improvement in skills going into high school, with children who can't swim or are poor swimmers remaining at increased risk of drowning in early adulthood.
What's next?
Royal Life Saving has called for federal efforts to improve water safety and swimming education in schools as Australia sees an increase in its national drowning rate.
Water safety advocates are calling for urgent action after research found nearly half of Australian school children enter their teens without attaining basic swimming skills.
New findings by Royal Life Saving Australia show almost half of all year 6 students are unable to swim continuously for 50 metres and tread water for 2 minutes — both key skills identified under the national swimming benchmark for Australians aged 12.
According to teachers, 48 per cent of children in year 6 cannot perform the two manoeuvers and 39 per cent still fail to by year 10.
The research also found that a shortfall in lifesaving skills persisted into high school, with teachers estimating 84 per cent of year 10 students were unable to swim 400 metres and tread water for 5 minutes, hence falling below the national standards for 17-year-olds.
The National Swimming and Water Safety Benchmark states that 50 per cent of all Australians at the age of 17 should be able to:
Assist others to exit deep water using bystanders
Float, scull or tread water for 5 minutes and signal for help
Swim continuously for 400 metres
Search in a deep environment and recover a person
Respond to an emergency and provide first aid
Rescue an unconscious person in deep water
Perform a survival sequence wearing heavy clothing
Missing out on learning how to swim while young has known links to an increased risk of drowning in adulthood, with data showing drowning rates grow tenfold between the ages of 10 and 20.
According to last year's National Drowning Report, Australia recorded 323 drowning deaths in the year to August, 16 per cent higher than the 10-year average amid a progressive decline in swimming skills post-COVID.
Across the 2024-25 summer period, 104 people died by drowning and a lack of swimming abilities was known to be a major contributing factor.
"It's alarming to see so many missing out," Royal Life Saving Australia CEO Dr Justin Scarr said. "We risk creating a generation with extremely poor swimming skills.
"Coordinated investments are needed to boost the swimming and lifesaving skills of children and young people, especially those aged 10-14 years who can't yet swim 50 metres, before it's too late."
The Australian Water Safety Strategy 2030 identifies a lack of swimming and water safety knowledge, alcohol and drug consumption, and risk-taking behaviours as the main risk factors for fatal drownings in the country.
Diverse communities over-represented
Under-pressure swim programs in schools, lesser frequency of and participation in swimming carnivals, and rising unaffordability were found to be behind the decline in primary-aged students' swimming skills.
About 31 per cent of all schools did not offer learn-to-swim programs due to staffing, cost and time limitations, and 25 per cent did not hold swimming carnivals, the research showed.
One in 10 kids aged five to 14 had never attended a lesson in any form. Children from First Nations, regional and migrant communities and low socio-economic backgrounds were found to be disproportionately impacted.
Swimming competencies have historically been marked by racial and ethnic disparities, often due to cultural barriers to taking up swimming, limited exposure to the activity in a recreational form, and many countries' lack of focus on it as a vital life skill.
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Dr Amy Peeden from the UNSW School of Population Health and a specialist in drowning prevention says the school system is the most effective means to provide "population-level" swimming coverage at a time when parents are struggling financially.
"We would love to see parents prioritise learn-to-swim for their children, it's a lifesaving skill … but we do know there are challenges and for some people, the cost or the access issues are just insurmountable," she told ABC News Channel.
"The school system stepping in, providing a minimum level of instruction, would be really great to make sure that we've got kids that are achieving these minimal benchmarks."
Dr Peeden said parents could delay their child's enrolment in swimming lessons to alleviate cost pressures, as well as practice informal water safety skills with their kids themselves to make up for any lack of learning otherwise.
The research also pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic for having worsened Australia's swimming education rates, highlighting that about 10 million swimming lessons were missed by children between 2020 and 2022 due to logistical disruptions.
"This has likely contributed to a cohort of children and young people who are now unable to swim, making them extremely vulnerable to drowning," it noted.
Royal Life Saving has called for a nationally coordinated approach to improve children's swimming and water safety skills, including measures to increase funding for school programs, grants catering to members of community groups vulnerable to drowning, expanding access to lifesaving lessons for high school students and investing in more public swimming infrastructure.
Posted14m ago14 minutes agoTue 18 Mar 2025 at 4:10am
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