Swimming Development: There is still a lot of room for improvement

(Baonghean) - There is only a month left until students in the province have summer vacation and this is the time when they have more contact with swimming pools, rivers, streams, beaches... Through swimming, they can exercise, prevent drowning accidents, and protect their own safety and that of others. However, in our province today, the development of swimming still has many shortcomings...

Implementing Official Dispatch No. 664/BGDĐT-CTHSSV on “Implementing drowning prevention and piloting swimming teaching in primary schools in the period of 2010-2015” dated February 9, 2010 of the Ministry of Education and Training, the Department of Education and Training has proactively sent teachers with expertise in swimming to participate in training courses on the program of popularizing swimming to prevent accidents and injuries organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Education and Training and directed schools to prepare facilities and conditions to include swimming in physical education lessons. However, it has been more than 4 years since this dispatch was issued, and up to now, swimming teaching in schools in the province has not been possible due to many objective difficulties, especially in terms of facilities.

According to statistics, no school in the province has a swimming pool that ensures swimming lessons. Extracurricular lessons mainly teach theory, such as analyzing the role and significance of learning to swim and methods to prevent drowning for students, methods to handle water accidents, first aid methods for drowning victims, etc., while teaching practical swimming to students in the curriculum has not been implemented. On the other hand, because most of the school year takes place in cold weather, which is not suitable for learning to swim, schools are not very interested in investing in facilities as well as organizing swimming courses for students.

Children learn to swim at Military Region 4 swimming pool. Photo: Thu Huyen

In addition, the pressure of regular subjects and extra classes is still heavy, so students, especially students in the city, do not have much time to learn to swim. Phan Nhat Thang - an 8C student at Ha Huy Tap Secondary School (Vinh City) said: "During the summer, because I have to study extra classes at school and at teachers' houses, I only have one session a week when my mother takes me to the swimming pool, each session is less than 1 hour, so even though I really like to learn to swim, I still don't know how to swim". Mr. Nguyen Tat Tay - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Do Luong district said: "Because there is no swimming pool in the district, it is very difficult to find locations in rivers and streams that are both safe and clean to teach swimming. On the other hand, the time to learn to swim is right at the time when students are on summer vacation, so implementing swimming lessons is difficult".

The difficulty in popularizing swimming among students has significantly affected the movement as well as the achievements of Nghe An swimming in national competitions. At the Provincial Sports Training and Coaching Center, along with athletics, swimming is the earliest sport to be introduced into training, but in recent years, this sport has shown signs of decline.

Currently, this sport in the Olympic competition program has no provincial competition, and has not been included in the Phu Dong Provincial Sports Festival for many years. At the recent district-level Sports Festivals, only Quynh Luu, Do Luong, Nam Dan, and Hung Nguyen districts included swimming in the competition and the number of athletes participating was quite small (from 20 to 25 athletes). Even Vinh City, the locality with the most swimming pools with 5 swimming pools, has not had swimming in recent Sports Festivals. The limitations in the movement have greatly affected the selection of athletes for the provincial swimming team. Therefore, for many years, the achievements of swimming in national competitions have been very limited. In 2013, this sport did not win any medals at national competitions.

According to Coach Hoang Van Hai - Head of the swimming department of the Provincial Sports Training and Coaching Center, to improve the performance of Nghe An swimming, there is no other way than to promote the swimming movement in schools, thereby selecting athletes with good qualities for the provincial swimming team. The Nghe An Department of Education and Training needs to focus on closely directing the organization of swimming lessons for students in schools; at the same time, swimming should be brought back as a competition in the Phu Dong Sports Festival at all levels from school to province as in the 90s of the last century to create a swimming movement among students. On the other hand, schools must do a good job of ideological work to make parents see the importance and benefits of swimming so that they can be proactive and create conditions for their children to learn to swim. Only then can the swimming movement among students develop, helping to practice skills to prevent drowning, improve health, and at the same time create a useful playground for them.

Minh Quan