VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has shown its strong determination to teach swimming to all general school students. However, experts doubt that the program can be implemented due to poor facilities.

Amid the increasingly high number of child deaths from drowning, MOET has sent a dispatch to local education departments throughout the country requesting to teach swimming under curricular and extracurricular programs, aiming to improve swimming technique and help prevent accidents.

Just in the last month, 50 students were reported dead because of drowning. Prior to that, official reports showed that about 7,000 children die every year because of drowning. Nguyen Trong An, former deputy head of the Child Care and Protection Agency, said he was startled about such a high number of deaths recently.

“The number of students dying of drowning is too high. It is necessary for local authorities and schools to immediately implement the swimming program for general school students,” he said.

However, experts have warned it was a difficult task to be implemented. Even HCMC, the first city in the country that began running the pilot program on swimming six years ago, has not gained the desired achievements.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has shown its strong determination to teach swimming to all general school students.

Poor facilities are the major reason that hinders the teaching of swimming at school. The number of schools which have swimming pools in school campuses is so modest that it can be counted with one’s fingers. 

Meanwhile, not all physical education (PE) teachers have deep knowledge enough to teach swimming to students. Therefore, in order to organize swimming teaching programs, schools have to hire teachers and bring children to swimming pools during swimming lessons.

Thuy An, a PE teacher at a primary school in HCMC, said only An and another teacher in the school can teach swimming, and they find it difficult to take care of all 50 students in one class at the same time. 

VTV’s reporters who were present at the Cay Giay Sports Center in Hanoi on a day in early June, discovered that 2/3 of students were absent at the swimming lesson. 

Parents said they could not bring their children to the swimming pool because of the unreasonable schedule. The students had the lesson from 7 am to 10 am, while they needed to be at the office at this time.

Ngu Duy Anh, director of the MOET’s Students’ Affairs Department, admitted that the teaching of swimming at school is meeting difficulties because very few schools have swimming pools and there are not many PE teachers who can teach swimming.

“I think the education sector does not have enough money and resources to implement the teaching of swimming,” Anh said.


CV