Swimming offensive in Rhineland-Palatinate: Every child should swim safely!

Swimming offensive in Rhineland-Palatinate: Every child should swim safely!

What's going on in Rhineland-Palatinate? One topic that is currently causing a lot of excitement is our children's swimming ability. More and more children are leaving primary school without having learned to swim. As a result, according to the DLRG, one in three children in Rhineland-Palatinate is considered a non-swimmer, and almost one in five swims unsafely. The CDU Rhineland-Palatinate is therefore planning a swimming offensive so that every child in the region learns to swim safely. MP Christian Baldauf emphasizes that swimming is a vital skill that should be the focus of lessons in the future. Mandatory swimming lessons in schools is an urgent demand to counteract this worrying situation. Speyer-Kurier reports on the critical infrastructure problems: Many swimming pools need renovations, especially in rural areas. This creates difficulties because how are children supposed to learn to swim if access to pools is not guaranteed?

The CDU is often accused of inadequate measures. However, Education Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) recently launched a swimming badge competition in Gensingen that is open to grades 1 to 10. Over 15,000 euros have been made available for this initiative to encourage more children to learn to swim. [SWR]. Many schools cannot offer regular swimming lessons due to a lack of water time, and alternatives such as project weeks and holiday care are being sought, especially in rural regions.

The urgency of the issue

Strong collaboration is needed to improve the situation. The Ministry of Education, together with various institutions such as the Supervision and Services Directorate and the State Pedagogical Institute, is committed to improving the quality of swimming lessons. Schulsport RLP emphasizes that training and further education offers for teachers as well as the creation of an extensive pool of materials are necessary in order to better support teachers.

A particularly interesting proposal is the introduction of mobile floating containers. These could be used in regions where swimming pools are not accessible, giving children the opportunity to learn how to use water at an early age. This would not only ensure greater safety, but also greatly improve the swimming skills of the younger generation.

A common goal

The swimming offensive initiative in Rhineland-Palatinate represents an important signal. The promotion of swimming should not only be improved through competitions and financial resources, but it is also necessary to take concrete measures to maintain the swimming infrastructure. The DLRG has already pointed out the critical situation: 16 indoor and outdoor swimming pools have been closed since 2020. It is therefore essential that the state government provides communities with the necessary financial resources to build new pools and renovate existing ones.

The responsibility for learning to swim must be viewed as a task for society as a whole. It takes the participation of many actors: schools, school authorities, pool operators and of course politicians have to work hand in hand to sustainably improve our children's swimming training. With determination and a swimming offensive, Rhineland-Palatinate could succeed in producing significantly more safe swimmers in a few years.