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Is £2.2m price tag for Fife primary school swimming lessons money down the drain?

Councillors have been presented with a report outlining the costs of teaching Fife pupils to swim.

Some councillors want to introduce swimming lessons in Fife primary schools
Fife primary school swimming lessons would cost £2.2m. Image: Mhairi Edwards/DC Thomson.

Reintroducing swimming lessons in Fife primary schools would cost £2.2 million a year, councillors have been told.

And there are concerns the move would effectively be “money down the drain”.

A report by head of education Shelagh McLean revealed it would cost almost £1m to hire swimming pools to provide lessons for the region’s 4,000 P6 pupils.

Swimming lessons in Fife primary schools stopped in 2015
Swimming lessons in Fife primary schools stopped in 2015.  Image: Kris Miller/DC Thomson.

Transporting children to the pools would cost £1.1m and an extra £970,000 would be needed to hire additional instructors.

Ms McLean’s report followed a call for swimming lessons to become part of PE lessons in primary schools.

The council pulled the plug on that part of the curriculum in 2015 following complaints it was taking too long to travel to and from pools and get children changed.

However, Liberal Democrat councillor Aude Boubaker-Calder raised a successful motion last year asking for the issue to be looked at.

No free swimming lessons in Fife

The Dunfermline councillor wants every child to be able to swim 25 metres by the time they leave primary school.

And she urged the council to press the Scottish Government for funding.

She added: “Children are not taught to swim in PE and some are making tragic headlines during the summer months.”

There are several other swimming programmes available through the council’s Active Schools programme and the Sports and Leisure Trust.

However, none of those are free so Ms McLean has recommended looking at ways to reduce cost and transport barriers.

And the education scrutiny committee has now called for further details.

‘It’s money down the drain’

However, East Neuk SNP councillor Alycia Hayes fears the price of lessons is too steep.

She said: “In an ideal world, I would fully back the idea that every child should have access to swim lessons within the school curriculum.

Councillor Alycia Hayes says the cost of swimming lessons in Fife primary schools is steep.

“But the bottom line is, that the cost of educating kids in swimming comes to £2.2m.

“Would that money be well spent?”

Swimming lessons are part of the curriculum in English schools.

However, Ms Hayes pointed out a third of English pupils still leave primary school unable to swim.

And far fewer have skills to save their own lives in the water.

She said: “It may be an obligatory part of education in England but it’s clearly not working there.

“It’s money down the drain.”

Conversation