A Tauranga principal is backing calls for the government to fund school swimming pools as the absence continues to restrict lower decile schools' ability to develop vital skills among children.

The cheerful sound of children splashing in the school pool whilst learning vital swimming and water safety lessons is a distant memory for many, including Merivale Primary School.

Merivale Primary School principal Jan Tinetti in front of the old pool site. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

'The majority of our children don't have access to private lessons either because it's quite expensive,” says the decile 1 school's principal Jan Tinetti.

'Our children tend to do a lot of swimming - it's an activity they do in their holidays and leisure time, like swimming in rivers.”

Now the issue is once again sending ripples through the education sector with New Zealand First calling for the government to reinstate funding for school pools in light of new data showing 90 people drowned in across the country last year.

The Water Safety New Zealand figure is less than the 2013 toll of 107, but the country still has the third-worst drowning record in the developed world.

Jan is supportive of any extra funding given to students as it missed out on swimming and water safety lessons for two years because of the cost until it received sponsorship from Water Safety NZ.

'It may not be school pools, but I think what the government need to do is an assessment of equity of schools.

'Where it's a problem – and in my community it is a problem – they need to come up with some solutions.”

For the last four years Merivale staff and students have made the 2.4km trek to Greerton Aquatic & Leisure Centre for a two-week swim school block costing $4.50 per child, per lesson.

Forced to decommission its pool eight years ago, and unable to fork out $60,000 for repairs, parents were initially charged 50 cents per lesson.

The school's own teachers, who were Swimsmart-trained, were used until that cost skyrocketed to $4.50 as the aquatic centre now demands lessons be given by its own instructors.

It's a cost the school simply couldn't afford, and neither can its families, says Jan.

'Some schools can put those fees back on parents but we can't do that because we don't have the money in the community to do that.”

NZ First deputy leader Tracey Martin says the Kiwi curriculum has an expectation that schools will teach water safety, but the government refuses to pay for school pools.

She says dozens of school pools have disappeared through a lack of funding and the government urgently needs to change its attitude and value the facilities.

It has been reported that pool access is becoming an equity issue, and in the past decade around 20 per cent of schools which had pools shut them down because of large maintenance and compliance costs.

'This is about the government's responsibility to fund the delivery of the subjects that they themselves have decided are required for New Zealand children – the schools have no choice but to deliver the curriculum or they get in trouble with the ministry,” says Tracey.

NZ First is suggesting an increase to the operations grant for those schools with pools that currently have working pools tagged for use on water testing and day-to-day maintenance.

Ministry of Education figures show there are 24 state and state-integrated schools in Tauranga which currently have swimming pools, although some of these may not be in use.

MOE's head of infrastructure service Kim Shannon says school boards make their own decisions about closing pools, whether temporarily or permanently, and the MOE don't always know about it.