The Estonian Swimming Federation said many schools struggle to organize swimming lessons, and not all children reach the expected level. At the same time, more and more adults are signing up for swimming classes.

Jana Adari from the Ministry of Education said opportunities depend largely on local conditions.

"At the moment, local governments decide how much money they allocate and how often children can swim. But rural schools definitely face a difficult situation," Adari said.

Children's swimming results are often influenced by how far the nearest pool is from the school, said Kirsti Mäesepp of the Estonian Swimming Federation.

"If the pool is very far away, lessons become quite expensive for the school. First, a lot of money goes to transportation. But there are also schools with a pool in the school building, and those schools have a very big advantage. I see that these places achieve very strong swimming results," Mäesepp said.

Currently, about half of students pass the swimming skills test.

"Our goal would be for about 90 percent of first‑stage students to know how to swim. But today we are only halfway there, and based on our surveys, it seems children's physical ability simply does not allow them to complete the 200‑meter combined test," Mäesepp said.

Mäesepp said the problem does not affect only children.

"We have quite a lot of adults in society today who did not have swimming lessons in school, so they are in a rather poor situation. Their swimming skills may be quite weak, and demand for adult swimming courses is very high," Mäesepp said.

The Swimming Federation would also like to see continued swimming instruction in higher grades.

"Our big wish is to have continued instruction so that, for example, if I passed the swimming test in third grade, I would get another chance in sixth grade and again in ninth grade," Mäesepp added.

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