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Closure of swimming pools: before the summer, "we are working on emergency solutions for schools"

2021-03-09T06:46:28.819Z


For Roxana Maracineanu, the former world swimming champion who became Minister of Sports, knowing how to swim is an upset priority p


Due to the health crisis caused by Covid-19, school audiences no longer have access to swimming pools.

A whole generation, about 800,000 schoolchildren and college students, could not learn to swim thanks to the school as it should have.

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A situation that worries swimming professionals as well as Roxana Maracineanu, the Minister of Sports.

What is the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and the closing of swimming pools on learning to swim?

ROXANA MARACINEANU.

Since January 15, only priority audiences, including high-level athletes, educators, and people with a medical prescription, can have access to public swimming pools.

This was already the case with the first confinement.

The result is that learning to swim in school has been cut off.

Many primary and middle school students, where most of swimming is learned, were unable to attend.

With the approach of summer, it is very problematic, with the scourge of drowning which is constantly increasing during this period.

Every year, 1000 people drown!

However, the only way to fight this phenomenon is to know how to swim.

In 2019, in particular to fight against these drownings, you launched the “Aquatic ease” plan, dedicated to 4-6 year olds.

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Unfortunately, since January, because of the closing of the swimming pools, it has been at a standstill, just as it had been stopped last spring.

We almost lost a year.

The idea of ​​this device, which is a new, more intense and more practical pedagogy, is not that the little ones master the medley at 4 years old, but that they know how to float and do not panic in the water. .

It is the first of the drowning safeguards.

As summer approaches, what solutions are there to respond to the potential influx of non-swimmers induced by Covid-19?

Are we going to reopen the pools to schools before the summer?

We do not know when the public swimming pools will reopen and, moreover, they are managed by the communities, not by the government.

I remind you that they are closed for health reasons, because they are closed places that stir people.

Of course, outdoor pools have already reopened, but they are being stormed by the general public.

And, above all, we cannot make children swim outside in March.

So we are taking the lead, with the deployment of learning pools of 4 meters by 8 in schools and gymnasiums, in agreement with the rectorates.

It is a device that existed before the Covid-19, but that we are strengthening and extending to schools, in collaboration with Jean-Michel Blanquer and the Ministry of National Education, for establishments that wish it.

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How much would it cost the schools?

The idea is that it doesn't cost them anything.

Our overall budget is 15 million euros, including 12 for equipment and 3 for organization.

This involves helping the purchase of up to 50% of these mobile pools, for example by sports associations, which then bring them to schools for swimming sessions.

The other communities - regions, town halls - must also help.

We can count on 800 basins in all.

Are other emergency solutions planned?

Yes.

The ministry is working on aid for communities with so-called northern basins, that is to say those that can theoretically only be open in summer, so that they can be equipped with condoms or a heating system. .

Objective: that they be practicable now, which would allow an offer for schoolchildren.

The budget is being considered, but we have to move quickly.

I have a meeting on Thursday March 11 on this subject with the National Sports Agency.

In addition, for this summer, we are working to connect individuals equipped with a swimming pool and lifeguards to offer private lessons.

There are 3 million family swimming pools in France, you have to rely on them!

In working-class neighborhoods, individuals do not have a swimming pool.

However, this is where the health crisis has cut the learning of swimming the most ...

For these territories, we rely on mobile basins.

But that will not do everything, it is obvious: it primarily involves learning to swim in a traditional school setting.

We are working on it.

And, more generally, there needs to be some in-depth work on the equipment.

We have released 30 million euros to renovate the swimming pools in priority areas of city policy.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2021-03-09

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