SWIMMING should be part of the curriculum for Fife's primary schools, a city councillor has argued.

Aude Boubaker-Calder, who represents Dunfermline Central, said kids are missing out on a healthy pursuit and learning a "key lifesaving skill" at an early age.

She wants every child to be able to swim 25 metres by the time they leave primary school and has tabled a motion calling for change at the Fife Council meeting this Thursday.

Cllr Boubaker-Calder, the Lib Dem's education spokesperson, explained: "I worry that children, including my own daughter, are disadvantaged as the SNP-led Scottish Government does not seem to think this is a priority.

"After all, swimming not only benefits physical and mental wellbeing but also is a key lifesaving skill.

"Scotland is a nation surrounded by lochs, rivers and coast, it is crucial that every child has the skill and the good reflexes when in an emergency situation in the water.

"That is why I have put forward this motion – to investigate if we can do this in Fife and also to press the Scottish Government to bring in the funding to allow us to do it."

She said Holyrood ministers pulled the £1.7 million funding for the swimming programme in schools in 2015 and that money must be found to get pupils back in the water.

Cllr Boubaker-Calder continued: "When I learned that swimming was not part of the physical education curriculum, I was dismayed.

"The curriculum for excellence in Scotland has ambitions to ensure that children and young people develop the knowledge and understanding, skills, capabilities and attributes which they need for mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing now and in the future.

"Yet to be able to swim in Scotland it is not part of the school curriculum. Which is, for me, a total contradiction.

"Meanwhile in England, swimming is an integrated compulsory part of the primary school physical education curriculum.

"The same when it comes to other European countries, such as Belgium where I originally come from.

"There is a minimum requirement of being able to swim 25 metres by the end of primary school. Scotland needs to follow those examples."

Last year the Press reported that anyone wishing to learn to swim was facing waiting times of up to 18 months before they could start taking lessons in Dunfermline.

And there were fears those delays could increase if the community-use pool at Woodmill closes when the high school shuts next year, especially as the new Dunfermline Learning Campus will not have a pool.