HCM City schools to offer swimming lessons
All public schools in Ho Chi Minh City will be required to teach swimming beginning in the 2016-17 school year under a new directive from the city’s Department of Education and Training.
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About 7,000 children die from drowning each year in Vietnam, according to a UNICEF survey.
The city aims for all local children to know how to swim by 2020.
However, among the city’s 1,800 schools with more than 1.5 million students, only 100 have standard swimming pools.
Many schools without swimming pools will be permitted to take their students to private pools at sports centres for swimming lessons. The department has told district educational divisions to encourage companies, organisations and individuals to invest in new swimming pools.
Districts should also create preferential policies for investors and work with local sport centres that have pools to set up swimming sessions. Teachers were asked to give instruction to students in drowning prevention.
The department also instructed that students should not be allowed to swim or play in areas where there is a high risk of drowning.
