Stuttgart (dpa/lsw) - In order to enable more children to learn to swim, a mobile swimming pool from the Stuttgart Josef Wund Foundation will be launched in October. The aim is to support primary schools with swimming lessons that do not have access to a swimming pool. A six meter long and two meter wide swimming pool is located in a container that is brought to the schools in a trailer truck. There is also a changing room, two showers and a toilet, as project manager Günter Geyer explained at the presentation on Wednesday.
"The lessons are completely free for the children and parents. The costs for electricity and water, around a few hundred euros per location, will be covered by the cities," said Geyer. In the pilot phase from October, the swimming mobile, the "Wundine on Wheels", will be in Karlsruhe for three months. Children between the ages of five and eight will then be taught by trained swimming teachers from the German Children's Sports Academy.
Indoor pools are often not profitable for municipalities, outdoor pools can only be used for swimming lessons in good weather, said Minister of Education Theresa Schopper (Greens), patron of the project. Learning to swim in schools is a big topic: "Swimming must be learned above all for safety, less for fun in the outdoor pool. The first foundation stone can be laid with the swimming pool."
The Josef Wund Foundation supports projects in the fields of education, health and creativity. The Wundine Swimming Academy, which supports school swimming lessons, has been running since 2021.
