During his meeting on Monday with Ms Joanne Steward, the Director of the UK registered charity Swim Viet Nam, Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Dang Viet Dung said that, over the recent summer, a total of 50 swimming pools have been built at local primary schools, and swimming courses were provided for a total of around 14,000 primary school pupils.

Pupils at a swimming class

Vice Chairman Dung said that Da Nang now needs to build more swimming pools for local school pupils.  He asked whether Swim Viet Nam would help the city build more pools and offer more training courses for local swimming teachers in order to improve their professional skills.

Ms Steward stressed the need for the city to teach its primary school pupils about water safety, including drowning prevention and self-rescue skills.

She said that her organisation is willing to help Da Nang build a large swimming pool, and offer courses on professional swimming skills for local trainers.

“However,” she explained, “the initial focus should be on developing more courses for learner swimmers, and improving the teaching methods of the local swimming teachers involved”.

Vice Chairman Dung agreed with her suggestion, and he asked the Department of Education and Training to work closely with Swim Viet Nam to develop effective teaching plans for local trainers, and take advantage of the existing local swimming pools to teach them how to develop their professional skills.  In addition, he asked the Department to identify a suitable location for the building of a new, large swimming pool.