Kids sink as swim lessons take dive

Lack of funds has been blamed for declining Wairarapa swimming instruction a week after 13 schoolchildren unable to swim were rescued at Riversdale Beach.
Riversdale Surf Lifesaving club captain Michael Taylor said water safety skills had dropped noticeably as most school pools and swimming programmes have disappeared and fewer families have a traditional holiday at the beach.
"If people don't learn to swim we can have what we had at Camp Anderson the other day.
"Had those kids been able to swim properly none of them would have been in danger. Something does need to be done," he said.
Five years ago 3500 children a year went through the Surf Lifesaving New Zealand beach education programme at Riversdale Beach, but this year only five Wairarapa schools and 1500 children participated.
"You have to treat everyone as though they can't swim. More often they're just playing in the waves up to chest-deep water. There's less of them swimming and less and less know how to swim."
"Schools are leaving it to parents to take kids to swimming lessons," Mr Taylor said.
Masterton Intermediate School deputy principal Russell Thompson said lack of funding prohibits a swimming programme.
"We have no funding from the Ministry of Education. Bus travel and access to a pool would be the barrier to that."
Mr Russell said it was hard to make bookings to use Masterton's Genesis Energy Recreation Centre pool as the school had to fit in around adult swimmers and other swimming programmes and could only book one or two lanes for the school at a time.
"Funding's an issue, but I think it's more of a parents role."
Douglas Park School physical education teacher Amy Williams said the school uses the Riversdale surf lifesaving programme and finds it fantastic. They also have their own outdoor pool which they can use for up to eight weeks in the warmer weather.
"We run a programme loosely based on the Lotto Swim Safe programme. It's the personal water safety skills - they won't come out of the programme and know how to do butterfly. We teach them to tread water and use flotation devices to get themselves to safety."
Ms Williams said because teachers weren't qualified swimming instructors they could not teach the swimming strokes.
"I've definitely seen a drop in skills, children don't spend the summer swimming," she said.
Parent Taralye Milne, of Masterton, said she spends $760 a year for her two pre-school boys to take swimming lessons. Parents should teach children to swim, she said, but some families could not afford the fees and should be helped.
"We live on an island surrounded by water, we are a country that does enjoy going to the beach. So this is a basic survival technique."
"Primary school programmes would be great because swimming is so important, it's just financially expensive for families," Ms Milne said.
Masterton District Council said in the past three months 29 schools had bookings to use the Genesis Energy Recreation Centre.