AUSTRALIA'S national life saving body has called for a huge investment in swim training for children, saying Australia faces a "drowning crisis".

Royal Life Saving chief executive Rob Bradley said an increasing number of children who could not swim was a "potentially catastrophic community issue". "It is a national disgrace that 50,000 children will leave primary school this summer unable to swim."

Equivalent numbers over the past 10 years meant about 500,000 young Australians were "at an extreme risk of drowning" because they had never learned to swim.

"Being able to swim and enjoy the water safely is a fundamental right of every Australian child." Every child should be able to swim the length of an Olympic swimming pool (50 metres) or keep themselves afloat for two minutes, he said.

Royal Life Saving wants the federal and state governments to make swimming and water safety a mandatory component of the new national school curriculum.

"We'd like to see a return to the days when every child got tested swimming in pyjamas, diving for bricks and practising CPR. Swimming ability and confidence in the water are skills every child needs," Mr Bradley said.

"Schools are under huge pressures now. They are concerned by cost and think that swimming and lifesaving has too great a risk."

It would cost an extra $40 million to ensure every Australian child had adequate water safety skills, he said.

Royal Life Saving has established the 'Swim and Survive' program which it hoped would teach 10,000 children to swim by the end of the year.