The implementation of the "Safety on Water" program has been identified as one of the priorities in the Sport Policy Guidelines for 2022-2027. The program is estimated to cost €1.6 million for the first year and €3.2 million annually thereafter.
However, like last year, there is no support and no money for it next year, explains the Sports Department of the Ministry of Education and Science.
"This year too, all the documents have been prepared to push the project as a priority measure, but after the cabinet meeting on June 18, national security has been identified as the only priority for 2025 in the medium-term budget. Ministers were then instructed not to submit proposals requesting additional funding for priority measures. So, unfortunately, we could not include this measure in next year's budget," says the Department's Director, Aleksands Samoilovs.
Samoilovs stresses that it will be very difficult to find the money in the current fiscal situation, so he has asked for a reassessment of the project - perhaps by cutting costs it would be possible to start next year. Currently, the school programme includes a swimming module and training for sports teachers, with around 500 teachers trained in the past years.
Dissatisfaction with the way the issue was progressing was voiced by a number of Sports Sub-Committee members at the meeting on Tuesday, September 17, who pointed out that the same thing was being repeated every meeting.
Aivars Platonovs, head of the Latvian Swimming Federation, said that the problem had not been addressed for eight years. He pointed out that swimming literacy is also a safety issue.
"Why do we have a government action plan, the Ministry of Health has its own plan, the Ministry of Education has its own plan and all of them represent, I am sorry, one political force; as if they are talking about the same things but not solving the problem. You have already written the 1.6 million in your own planning documents, we are saying, start implementing the project with 100,000 [euros], whatever, then look for it in your own resources," Platonovs said at the meeting.
A survey of around 500 schools this year found that half of them are not or only partially implementing the training, and in many cases it is not an infrastructure problem, as there are places where nearby pools are simply not used.
Zane Gemze, head of Swim Safe, calls for swimming training to be introduced primarily at primary school level and implemented for at least three years,
There are places where training does not take place or only takes place for one year, and in a nearby school it can take place from Year 1 to Year 12.
"It is amazing that officials in the Ministry of Education and Science do not understand that this is not directly related to sport, but this is the content of learning. Swimming is exactly the same as mathematics, Latvian language, geography and other subjects. And swimming is, in my opinion, one of the most important because it ensures human life," says Gemze.
