The warning has come from academics at the University of East Anglia (UEA), who found that 51 per cent of British children aged seven to 11 cannot swim the distance.
The curriculum requires that children should be capable of at least that length by the time they arrive at secondary school.
The academics say that, because of this failure, secondary school PE teachers are having to pick up the gauntlet.
Dr Craig Avieson and Dr Penny Lamb, of UEA’s School of Education and Lifelong Learning, set out the problem in an article in the journal Physical Education Matters.
Dr Avieson said: “It is a national problem that children cannot swim by age 11. Ensuring children have basic swimming skills is the responsibility of both primary and secondary schools and this is a chance to do something about it.
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