A third of children in England cannot swim by the time they leave primary school, according to research from the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).
The research suggests many non-swimmers have never had a school swimming lesson despite its being part of the national curriculum for seven-to-11-year-olds.
The Department for Education said schools must provide lessons and pupils must be taught to swim 25m unaided.
With the summer fast approaching, it is imperative that children learn to swim, however, researchers calculate that around 200,000 children leave primary school each year unable to swim properly.
The survey responses also suggested that of the children who could not swim, 39% had never been offered school swimming lessons.
It quotes figures from the National Water Safety Forum which show that more than 400 people drown each year in the UK and that drowning is the third most common cause of accidental death in children.
So with all the benefits physically, mentally and safety-wise for our children, one has to ask why when this coalition government first came to power they decided to axe free swimming for children and pensioners that the former Labour government had put in place, which was a huge success?
It doesn't make sense, especially when we have an increasing fitness and obesity problem.
But as ever we have a government that seems to know the price of everything but the value of nothing and has a complete inability to see the bigger picture or the domino effect of what they cause when they do things like this!
Yet another governemnt policy crashes and burns.
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