BWIRE: Why Kenya should make swimming mandatory school skill

Swimming lessons are mandatory in German primary schools, usually in Grades 2 or 3, as part of the curriculum aimed at ensuring all children are safe in water.

These requirements vary slightly by federal state, but the goal is for children to achieve basic proficiency, such as swimming twenty-five metres and jumping into a pool. Swimming is also compulsory in Austria and in France’s primary schools.

In Kenya, the case is different. Swimming is largely voluntary and is not compulsory in schools. Instead, it is treated as an extracurricular activity, mostly embraced by private primary and secondary schools, with only a few public schools adopting it.

Schools introduce swimming with good intentions, aiming to build children’s confidence, safety awareness, physical fitness, and lifelong life-saving skills.

Despite this, last year alone about one thousand two hundred people died from drowning in Kenya, a large proportion of them children and young people.

These numbers should urgently inform policy at the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports. Many institutions engage in marketing gymnastics to justify “keeping up with the Joneses”.

This expression captures how mainly private primary and secondary schools try to outdo each other in extracurricular activities, but often without adequate capacity.

Picture a primary or junior secondary school on its activity day, taking children for a swimming session at the nearest pool, usually one that also operates restaurant services. A few go to sports centres or to other schools with pools.

The children may number about one hundred in a particular grade and might be accompanied by only about five teachers. The situation becomes even more worrying when the group includes the youngest learners, aged between three and seven years.

The probability that four out of five teachers are non-swimmers is extremely high. This is not to blame them, as swimming is not part of their job description, and swimming has not historically been a common skill in Kenya.

The likelihood that there is only one swimming coach at the venue is also high. How qualified that instructor is raises further concern. Many swimming venues also display “swim at your own risk” notices. This paints a grim picture of the environments where innocent children are taken.

As these children enjoy their swimming activity, how possible is it for one instructor to monitor one hundred small, excited children at once? It is impossible, and this is how drowning incidents occur.

Those who are fortunate may be children whose parents have paid for extra swimming lessons. However, children will always be children, and even good swimmers can innocently lead non-swimmers into risky situations.

Drowning can occur in minutes and often silently, depending on conditions and health. This is why supervision by multiple qualified instructors and teachers, as well as rapid rescue, saves lives.

Many tragedies reported during well-meaning school excursions could be avoided. This risk is not limited to swimming pools, but also applies to rivers, lakes, and dams. If more adults had swimming skills, as is common among coastal communities, many dangers could be reduced.

In January this year, social media circulated the story of an Australian boy whose strong swimming skills enabled him to rescue his mother and siblings during a sea accident. He swam for nearly four hours, a skill he had learnt to a professional level, and saved his family’s lives.

Making swimming mandatory in primary schools and embedding it in government policy is therefore a critical public safety and equity measure. In Kenya, drowning remains a preventable yet persistent cause of death, particularly among children living near rivers, lakes, quarries, and coastal areas, yet lacking basic water survival skills.

A government-led compulsory programme would ensure early exposure to water safety, rescue awareness, and confidence around water, reducing fear and panic that often lead to fatalities. Schools could also require parents to present swimming clearance when admitting their children.

This approach would create employment opportunities for certified swimming instructors, offering a long-term career path in sports, one of the core pillars of the competency-based curriculum. This is one way governments can create jobs by addressing critical gaps in society.

Beyond saving lives, mandatory swimming promotes physical health, discipline, and resilience, while embedding a culture of prevention rather than reaction. Treating swimming as a core life skill, like road safety or first aid, affirms Kenya’s responsibility to protect children and equip them with practical skills for survival.