Many difficulties in implementing swimming lessons for children

More than 160 children died from drowning in more than 3 years

On the evening of July 10, 2024, at Quynh Phuong beach, Hoang Mai town, a tragic drowning incident occurred. The victim was Ng. NTU (born 2013), residing in Hung Dong commune (Vinh city), when returning to his hometown in Quynh Vinh commune, Hoang Mai town with his friends to Quynh Phuong beach to swim. While swimming, Uyen was swept away by the water and did not know how to swim, so she died.

This is the most recent drowning death of a child and one of many drowning incidents that have occurred in Nghe An in recent times. According to statistics from the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, from 2021 to June 2024, 165 children died from drowning in the province. In the first 6 months of this year, there were 14 drowning incidents in the province, causing the death of 16 children.

Faced with the risks of drowning accidents and alarming numbers, the Provincial People's Committee, departments, branches and organizations have paid attention to directing and coordinating the implementation of many measures and solutions to minimize the number of cases and the number of children who have drowning accidents in the province. Every year, the province allocates a budget of about more than 4 billion VND to serve the work of preventing and combating child drowning.

During the 2021-2023 period, the province coordinated with the Department of Children, Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs to implement the Project "Supporting the implementation of effective and sustainable interventions to prevent and combat child drowning in Vietnam", implementing project activities in 12 key communes in Dien Chau, Yen Thanh and Quynh Luu districts.

Through the Project, communication activities and training to improve capacity for provincial officials and civil servants have been organized, safe swimming skills classes have been organized for 1,400 children and water safety skills have been organized for 24,000 children from 6 to 15 years old and for 1,800 delegates who are preschool teachers, commune officials; representatives of parents, grandparents and families of children under 15 years old.

Difficulties in popularizing swimming lessons

Despite efforts in preventing and combating child drowning, Nghe An still faces many difficulties as the number of children drowning remains high; the annual rate of child deaths due to drowning has not decreased sustainably, especially during hot weather.

The above situation, besides the reason that parents and those who directly take care of children are subjective and negligent in monitoring, supervising and managing children, also comes from the fact that many children do not know how to swim and have not been trained in safe swimming skills in the water environment. Although teaching swimming to children at the grassroots level has been paid attention to, teaching swimming to children is not regular, children mainly learn to swim at service swimming pools that have to pay relatively high fees.

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According to reports from districts, cities and towns, there are currently 216 swimming pools in the province, including 111 fixed pools and 105 mobile pools. Most of the pools are built by individuals and businesses for investment purposes in central areas with high economic conditions such as Vinh city, Cua Lo town, Dien Chau... For children in rural areas and poor children, learning to swim is very limited. In addition, there are a number of mixed pools, wading pools, bathing cages, ponds and lakes created by people to teach children to swim, however, these mixed pools are not safe and do not meet the requirements according to regulations.

Ms. Le Thi Nguyet - Head of Department of Children and Gender Equality (Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs).

On July 7, 2023, at the 14th session of the 18th term, 2021 - 2026, the People's Council of Nghe An province passed Resolution 09/2023/NQ-HDND stipulating policies to support investment in swimming pools and organize swimming lessons for children in Nghe An province and according to the plan, in 2024, support investment in installing 178 mobile swimming pools.

However, the implementation of the Resolution was very slow as it was not until mid-May that the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 1181/QD-UBND on approving locations supported for investment in swimming pools and swimming lessons for children, and according to the decision, only 99 locations were supported for investment in swimming pools, much lower than the plan of Resolution 09/2023. Up to now, although there is only more than 1 month left until the end of the summer vacation for students, the installation of swimming pools has not been carried out because it is waiting for the Provincial People's Committee to allocate funds to localities.

The reason for this situation, according to the representative of the Department of Culture and Sports, is that localities are slow in implementing the review and assessment of conditions to ensure and select locations for schools or commune People's Committees to install mobile swimming pools according to the provisions of Clauses 1 and 2, Article 2 and Clause 1, Article 3 of Resolution No. 09/2023/NQ-HDND dated July 7, 2023 of the Provincial People's Council.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Department of Culture and Information of localities said that, along with the installation of swimming pools, the cost of building auxiliary works such as yards, fences, bathrooms, etc.; the cost of maintaining and operating swimming pools such as: electricity for pumps, chemicals for water disinfection, pool cleaning, etc. are also quite high, while the local budget is still limited, so many communes, towns, and schools are "afraid" to receive support from the Resolution of the Provincial People's Council.

These shortcomings have led to a practical resolution of the Provincial People's Council being slow to come into effect, and for many localities, especially rural areas, ethnic minority and mountainous areas, the popularization of swimming for children is still only carried out on... paper.