LEARN TO SWIM CAMPAIGN

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5311, 25 January 1947, Page 7

LEARN TO SWIM CAMPAIGN

When they return to school in February, Wellington primary school children will take part in the most intensive learn-to-swim campaign yet under taken by the Education Department. The campaign will he under the direction of the senior area organiser of the physical education branch of the department (Mr. D. P. O'Connor), who over the past month or so has •been holding refresher courses in physical education for teachers and outgoing groups from the Training College. Swimming training for children has bden a part of the curriculum in many New Zealand schools for a number of years, but it has been, in the main, largely a sporadic effort dependent chiefly on the enterprise and enthusiam of local teachers and residents. In 1940 the Education Department began to take an interest in the idea, and since that year the scheme has steadily expanded. The handicap in the Wellington district in the past has been the shortage of suitable shallow pools, but Education Department officials say that they are doing all in their power to meet ,the -situation. In the last two or three years shallow pools have heen eonstructed at several schools, and it is hoped that in time all schools will have similar facilities.