Both teachers and parents expect that schools across Da Nang will soon reorganize swim lessons to be in a smaller or more private groups for their pupils in a bid to protect them from drowning.

Pupils at the Cam Le District-based Ngo Quyen Primary School learning how to swim

In 2016, Da Nang's swimming team excellently took the lead at the Phu Dong Sports Festival Zone 3 in Thanh Hoa Province with 41 gold medals, 32 silver and 20 bronze.

The positive results were mainly attributed to the city leaders' special care in providing free swimming courses to pupils citywide.

Most notably, every year, the Da Nang Department of Culture and Sports cooperates with the municipal Department of Education and Training to provide swimming education and training for physical education teachers, and introduce drowning prevention skills to them.

Since 2016,  a combined total of 9,600 pupils across the city have been provided with free swimming courses. Swimming tournaments for youth have been organized annually. From the above positive results, many teachers and parents hope that teaching and learning activities, including physical education subjects such as swimming and gymnastics, will soon return to normal.

Huynh Thi Thu Nguyet, Headmistress of the Nui Thanh Primary School, said her school has developed a plan to teach swimming for pupils since the start of the new 2021-2022 school year. In particular, there will be 2 main swimming courses for 4^th and 5^th graders from June-August, and sub-courses in September, October, March and April. All the courses will be funded by the municipal People's Committee. However, due to the complicated development of the pandemic, the plan has been postponed until the future notice.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Le, Headmaster of the Nguyen Khuyen Senior and Junior High School, over recent years, school pupils have been taught about basic swimming skills during physical education sessions and extracurricular activities. His school's swimming pools are cleaned and disinfected every half month.

His school has targeted to teach its pupils basic and safe swimming skills, thereby limiting the risk of drowning, and improving their health to meet the physical requirements for learning and living activities.

Most recently, a new swimming pool, funded by the Da Nang-based Disaster Mitigation Community Fund, has been built at the An Phuoc Primary School in the Bo Ban flood area, Hoa Phong Commune, Hoa Vang District. Previously, this fund sponsored the construction of swimming pools at Ngo Quyen Primary School and Thai Thi Boi Primary School, both in Cam Le District.

The construction work is part of the "Building swimming pools and protective domes" project which has been carried out in 16 provinces and cities across the country. The intention of the project is to reduce the risk of drowning amongst children.

Mr. Dao Minh, a father of a pupil at the Phan Chau Trinh Senior High School, said that most of parents encourage their children to learn to swim from a very young age. He added swimming may be included in the curriculum as a compulsory subject in the physical education module.

Reporting by XUAN SON – Translating by M.DUNG