Saturday, February 20, 2010

Vietnam primary schools to teach swimming

Fourth graders around the country will be taught how to swim to reduce the number of drownings in the country, according to a recent Ministry of Education and Training directive.

Children from in a mountainous village in Lang Son Province cross a river twice a day to go to school.

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The ministry this week sent a note to city and provincial Departments of Education and Training, asking them to try teaching swimming for primary students, especially those in fourth grade, local newswire VietnamNet said Thursday.

Schools were asked to train their physical education teachers and build and share swimming pools, depending on the amount of space and finances available.

The children should be taught swimming on the weekend, during summer vacation or in physical educations classes if possible, the ministry said in the note.

The ministry will subsequently take into account swimming instruction when evaluating the performance of the city/provincial education departments.

Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 12 February, 2010