There are large regional differences in the swimming skills of fourth grade children in Oslo.

In one school district, only 5% of fourth graders knew how to swim. In another study, 88% did.

The noise level in Lambertseter Bad was high. Although 18 pools were used during the summer school, two classes still shared the pool.

– Although the time is tight, we will achieve this goal, says Silje Nilsen, Director of the Summer School.

During the four-week summer school, 5,485 students took swimming lessons.

Suitable for students in grades 3-4. Almost all classes include 45 minutes of swimming time each day. In addition, enrichment classes are offered for students who have not passed the school’s required swimming course.

– Some are very good and enjoy being in the water, some can’t swim. But most people enjoy being in the pool, says Silje Nilsen, director of the summer school.

Fear of drowning

Students must be able to swim by the time they graduate from fourth grade in primary school, but many students now fail the school’s mandatory swimming training.

Summer school swimming is one of the city’s efforts to change that.

One of the students at the summer school is Iben Hagen Strand (9). She says she learned to swim at the age of seven, later than all her friends.

– It feels a bit unfair, but I really haven’t given enough.

She had a terrible fear of drowning, which made practice difficult, but each time she practiced with her father, it got easier.

– When I first did it, I felt really proud.

Results were worse in 10 of 15 regions

To be considered able to swim, fourth graders must pass a swimming test, which includes swimming, diving, and floating on their stomachs and backs. This is exercise 7.

In the Stovna district, only five percent of students passed the swimming test this year. In Nordre Aker, 88 percent passed.

Ten of the 15 regions performed worse this year than in 2019.

Only Bjerke, Gamle Oslo, Grünerløkka, Nordre Aker and Vestre Aker had more pupils passing the swimming test than in 2019.

– This is certainly not a development we want and we have to follow up with the schools and regions involved. It is our responsibility to ensure that all pupils have the opportunity to learn to swim. It cannot remain a class-divided skill, schools councillor Julie Remen Midtgarden wrote in an email to Aftenposten.

She said they will carefully study the reasons why fewer students passed Exercise 7 and will hold a dialogue with the principal to find good measures to change the situation.

– However, fourth graders can swim without passing all the exercises. Number 7 Number 7 Exercise 7 is the last swimming test that students must take and it determines whether they can swim.“The requirements are quite high,” Midtgarden stressed.

Stovner 5%

In the Stovner district, the results have declined in recent years. In 2019, almost half of the fourth graders passed the swimming test. In just one year, the percentage of students passing the test rose from 13 percent to 5 percent. How did this happen?

– The Furuset and Nordtvedt baths have been closed for some time this academic year. This may have affected the swimming facilities for students in the Grud, Alna and Stovna districts, Midtgarden wrote.

Pål Einar Røch, head of the Swedish Education Agency’s department for assessment, further and continuing education, points to the same reason.

The department said there may be some misreporting in the data, in part because some students have not yet been surveyed, and that it will work with schools to investigate the reasons for the low numbers after the summer holidays.

– Challenge to get the girls into the water

Gro Høydal Nesse, headmaster of Vestli School in the Stovna district, said: ‘We offer more swimming than is needed.

– But we still see that when there is no swimming in spare time, it is not enough. There are many reasons for this.

The principal said that the reasons for this situation are that parents cannot swim, they are afraid of water, afraid of the economy, afraid of the capacity of their homes, and there is no swimming culture.

– We had a lot of students who were afraid of the water and it took a long time to get to safety and get into the pool. At the oldest stage it was also an increasing challenge to get the girls in the water.

Nese said teachers have to have a lot of conversations with parents to get girls involved especially because more and more girls don’t want to be involved in teaching for a variety of reasons.

She also pointed out that many students are not in good physical shape as many do not participate in sports activities outside of school. This makes it difficult to pass the mandatory swimming test.

– For us, our parents have made a great contribution

Henriette Randsborg is the principal of Kjelsås School and Maridalen School in the Nordre Aker district.

She believes that many of Nordre Aker’s students were able to pass the swimming test because their families had taught them to swim before they took swimming lessons in fourth grade.

– 20 hours is not enough to learn to swim, so for us the contribution of parents is huge, says Randsborg.

A symbol of class difference

Marianne Hussein, deputy leader of the SV party and a member of the Oslo parliament, believes that swimming skills are a symbol of class differences in the city.

– In areas where swimming is not possible, people from ethnic minority backgrounds are more numerous. They may not have a swimming pool and a holiday tradition of parents who can teach them to swim. That is why schools have long been the most important venue for swimming lessons, Hussain said.