OSAKA - One in five public junior high schools in Japan has stopped offering swimming lessons, raising concerns about declining swimming ability as schools struggle with extreme heat, aging pool facilities and the growing burden on teachers.
Swimming instruction is compulsory under the national curriculum guidelines from the first year of elementary school through the second year of junior high school. However, the rules allow exceptions when schools cannot secure an appropriate environment, enabling individual schools to suspend practical lessons.
Atsunori Matsui, a professor at Naruto University of Education, said three major factors were driving the change: the increasing risk of heatstroke during periods of extreme heat, the deterioration of school swimming pools and heavier workloads for teachers.
A Japan Sports Agency survey found that heatstroke prevention was the most frequently cited challenge facing school swimming programs.
Schools have attempted to shift swimming lessons to earlier in the year to avoid the hottest part of summer, but unpredictable weather has made scheduling difficult. Some schools that moved lessons to June encountered unusually cool conditions, leaving children cold in the water.
Rules surrounding swimming clothing have also changed, with more schools allowing children to wear rash guards for protection from ultraviolet rays. Schools must also consider students who feel uncomfortable wearing traditional swimwear, adding to the need for individualized arrangements.
The decline in lessons has coincided with a sharp fall in swimming proficiency. The proportion of sixth-grade students able to swim at least 25 meters using the front crawl has fallen to around half for both boys and girls.
The decrease became particularly pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many swimming lessons were canceled. Commentators noted that previous generations were often expected to swim at least 25 or 50 meters before graduating, while school pools were commonly opened after classes and municipal pools were inexpensive and widely used during summer.
Toru Hashimoto, a lawyer and former governor of Osaka Prefecture, said the traditional goal of swimming 25 meters may not be the most effective way to prevent drowning.
"What is more important than being able to swim 25 meters is learning the skill of staying afloat for as long as possible," Hashimoto said. "Being able to swim 25 meters alone may not be enough to save your life."
Hashimoto said school swimming lessons were originally intended to prevent water accidents, rather than teach competitive strokes or improve times. He argued that lessons should focus on survival skills, including floating, swimming while wearing clothes and remaining calm in the water.
Swimming in clothes is considerably more difficult than swimming in a bathing suit, and many real-life water accidents occur while victims are fully dressed. Participants said students should experience the difficulty under controlled conditions so they are less likely to panic during an emergency.
A professor at Nagoya University’s graduate school also called for a shift toward instruction designed to prevent drowning. The professor said swimming education had placed excessive emphasis on competitive goals such as swimming styles, distances and times, while water safety had been treated as a secondary concern.
Lessons should at minimum include clothed swimming and training that teaches children how to breathe and remain afloat in the water, the professor said.
Maintaining school pools has also become increasingly difficult. Teachers are responsible not only for instruction but also for pool maintenance, water quality, safety monitoring and supervision, particularly for younger students who require constant attention.
Some participants said it was no longer financially realistic for every school to operate its own swimming pool. They proposed using municipal or privately operated pools and hiring professional instructors instead of placing the entire responsibility on school teachers.
Chiba Prefecture has already introduced measures including the shared use of newer school pools and the use of municipal and private facilities. The initiatives are expected to reduce expenses for large-scale pool renovations and other costs by about 634 million yen.
Using indoor pools could allow schools to hold lessons throughout the year without being affected by extreme heat, rain or seasonal temperatures. However, schools would still need to arrange transportation, adjust timetables and ensure that students can safely board and leave chartered buses.
The Japan Sports Agency has issued a checklist for schools using external swimming facilities, calling on them to secure transportation and consider travel time when preparing flexible schedules.
Funding remains another challenge. Hashimoto said government financial support may be needed to prevent the cost of external facilities and transportation from being passed entirely to parents.
While schools face growing practical difficulties, experts and commentators said some form of water safety education should be preserved. They argued that teaching students to float for three to five minutes, control their breathing and respond calmly in the water could be more valuable for survival than requiring every child to swim a fixed distance.
Source: KTV NEWS
