This is planned in the draft Government program implementation plan, which the Cabinet of Ministers is expected to consider soon.
According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, currently no fewer than 16 thousand second graders participate in the swimming training program – this accounts for about 54 percent of all second-grade students. To include all second graders in the program, an additional 14 thousand children would be needed.
The Ministry states that the swimming training program is funded as a national physical activity program. It started to be implemented in 2023, and more than 3 million euros are planned to be allocated to it over four years by the end of this year.
According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, to include all second graders in the swimming training program, an additional approximately 2.6 million euros would be needed.
“The program is planned to continue and aims to expand. To this end, it is planned to change the program’s funding model, which is currently still being developed and refined,” the comment conveyed to BNS states.
“Currently, efforts are being made to provide as many second graders as possible with the basics of swimming and safe behavior near water,” it adds.
However, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports states that many challenges remain – about 20 municipalities do not have pools that meet standard requirements.
According to it, there are no standard pools in Joniškis, Šiauliai district, Pakruojis, Biržai, Zarasai, Panevėžys district, Raseiniai, and others.
“However, some municipalities without pools still participate in the swimming training program and organize transportation for their students to a neighboring municipality, for example, students from Pakruojis municipality go to Pasvalys to learn to swim,” the ministry’s response states.
In turn, the ministry also notes that the situation of sports infrastructure in municipalities is steadily improving – over the past five years, with the help of state funding, many new modern pools have been built and started operating in the regions.
“This summer, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports initiated a new sports infrastructure development progress measure aimed at fundamentally improving the accessibility and quality of sports facilities in the country’s regions. During the implementation of this measure, 46 million euros from the state budget are planned to be allocated for the development of municipal sports infrastructure in 2026–2028, of which 19 million euros are already planned for 2026,” the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports states.
Among other things, the ministry emphasizes that participation in this program is not mandatory for municipalities.
“There are municipalities that, even having the necessary infrastructure, do not participate in the national program – they organize their own programs for students. Moreover, even if a municipality participates in the national program, not all schools in the municipality are required to participate,” the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports response reads.
BNS wrote that in free classes, primary school students learn to stay afloat, swim in different styles, dive underwater, and acquire theoretical knowledge and practical skills of safe behavior in and near water. Children are taught to swim in pools by swimming coaches with at least two years of swimming training experience.
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