I'm quite surprised by this. I grew up in Ireland. There is no swimming lessons in school. My kids who are growing up here had lessons for most of their lives, except where not permitted during covid. They also do nippers.

Most other kids I know do swimming lessons (privately) weekly ongoing, whereas I grew up learning to swim with weekly lessons in bursts of a few weeks. Nippers is less common unless you live near a surf club.

I'm sure it's dropped as the article suggests, but I'd say it dropped from a high starting point.

[–] Nath@aussie.zone 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Anecdotal, I realise - but this is the first time I've ever heard of any school in Australia school dropping swimming lessons. To hear that it is one-in-four is not just surprising, it's downright difficult to believe. From looking on the Royal Lifesaving website, I haven't found this report. I have found something that appears to refute the news article however.

I think I'm going to need a source on this one.

[–] wildwhitehorses@aussie.zone 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Is it swimming lessons or swimming carnivals? I am having issues with the article.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 weeks ago

The article talks about both.

Teachers estimated 48 per cent of year 6 swimmers could not swim 50 metres or tread water for two minutes, and 39 per cent of year 10 students could not meet year 6 benchmarks either.

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