WATER safety experts will gather in Brisbane today for the second of three roundtable meetings looking at how to improve swim education in Queensland schools. The roundtables were organised by Education Minister Grace Grace after The CourierMail's S.O.S. Save Our Schoolkids campaign. On the advice of national experts, it is pushing for compulsory and benchmarked swim and water safety lessons in primary schools similar to those implemented in other states and territories. The campaign aims to reduce drowning deaths by giving students the vital skills needed to survive in the water, recognise danger and help others. The State Government, which invests $1.5 million in swim programs compared with more than $9 million committed in Victorian, says 98 per cent of state schools have swimming in some form. It is yet to be revealed exactly how many children are taught swimming, what standard is achieved and whether all schools achieve the minimum national benchmark advised by the Australian Water Safety Council.
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