Organisers of the World Conference on Drowning Prevention 2011 are excited to learn of the recently announced policy requiring schools to begin preparations to teach primary school students to swim in Vietnam. In response to the Vietnamese Governments Child Drowning Prevention Policy, the Ministry of Education and Training has proposed a pilot program to help students protect themselves from drowning due to their significant exposure to water hazards.

Recently the Ministry of Education and Training sent a directive to city and provincial Departments asking them to take steps to incorporate swimming lessons for primary students, particularly those in the fourth grade (around 8 to 9 years of age).The Ministry wishes to implement the program across the country from 2010 to 2015.

Vietnam is a country where an estimated 11,000 children aged 1-17 drown every year. Statistics from the Child Protection Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) reveal that 10 school students drown each day in Vietnam. Almost 70% of the children who drown are under the age of 15, and many drown whilst playing or participating in outdoor activities. The student drowning rate in Vietnam is 10 times higher than that of developed countries.

Schools have been asked by the Ministry to train their physical education teachers and to build or share swimming pools. The project aims to teach swimming on the weekend, during summer vacation or in physical education classes if possible. The Ministry will then take into account swimming instruction when evaluating the performance of the city or provincial education departments.

Very few adults or children know how to swim in Vietnam, despite it being a country where water is prevalent in everyday life. Many children, such as those from the mountainous villages of Lang Son province, in northern Vietnam, must cross a river twice a day just to get to and from school. The river is always high at the beginning of the academic year, adding to the risk for children.

In Quang Binh province, near Ho Chi Minh City, several primary students drown on their way to school each year. Many other people across the country rely upon fishing boats and ferries to transport them across water to school or to the market.

Danang, the World Conference on Drowning Prevention 2011 host city, has already experienced firsthand the benefits of a child drowning prevention program. The Alliance for Safe Children (TASC) in collaboration with partners The Royal Life Saving Society – Australia (RLSSA) and the Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH) established the SwimSafe program in a bid to reduce child drowning across the province, and to establish a demonstration project that had relevance across Vietnam.

Since commencing in May 2009, the SwimSafe program has trained 120 primary school teachers in survival swimming and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) instruction, in collaboration with Red Cross Vietnam. The program has taught approximately 6000 children the skills of survival swimming and basic rescue in its first year, with older children also being taught the lifesaving skill of CPR.

SwimSafe Danang provided a revolutionary way to deal with the nation-wide shortage of swimming pools and aquatic facilities that will make implementing this national policy challenging. Where schools in the Mekong Delta have experimented with iron or bamboo frames in rivers and lakes to protect students whilst learning to swim, SwimSafe Danang utilised above ground portable swimming pools, a solution suitable for urban and rural environments, and which can be easily installed on school grounds.

TASC and its partners are working on continuation of the program in 2010 and beyond. Attendees to the World Conference on Drowning Prevention will have the chance to witness and engage with the SwimSafe program in Danang, as well as have the chance to discuss SwimSafe and other similar programs. Abstracts open soon, so if you have a program or research in this area, this event will provide a platform for sharing these valuable insights.

 Amy Peden, Royal Life Saving Society – Australia

The conference organisers welcome contributions to this news facility. Please email all contributions to jscarr@rlssa.org.au