The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has shown its determination to teach swimming to students as many drowning cases are reported every year. However, the biggest problem is the lack of pools, and  money to build pools.   

The Binh Thuan provincial education department seems to have found the solution to this problem by calling for private investment. Nguyen Van Linh School in Binh Thuan province, for example, has borrowed money from the Binh Thuan Books and School Equipment Company. 

Each student at the school will have to pay VND100,000 a year for the swimming pool. With the collection, the school plans to pay back investment capital to the company within three years.

Each student at the school will have to pay VND100,000 a year for the swimming pool. With the collection, the school plans to pay back investment capital to the company within three years.

Some schools can join forces to build and share swimming pools, which will not serve business purposes, but only teaching.

With the pool development plan, swimming will become a subject at general schools in Binh Thuan province from the 2017-2018 academic year. Primary school students will have 12 lessons a year, while secondary and high school students will have 16 lessons.

According to Vo Van Khai from the Binh Thuan education department, all primary and secondary schools in the mountainous district of Tanh Linh have organized teaching of swimming with 16 fixed and 6 mobile swimming pools built with private capital.

In Phan Thiet City, eighth and ninth graders at the schools in the inner city must learn swimming as a compulsory subject, while swimming is an optional subject for sixth and seventh graders. All the students have to go to swimming pools developed by businesses or pools in resorts because schools don’t have their own pools.

However, the plan to develop swimming pools under the BOT mode has not been welcomed by some parents.

Duong Hoang Dung, whose children are students at a primary and secondary schools in Tanh Linh district, said the children cannot swim well and they don’t want to learn how to swim, but would rather play football or volleyball. Why does he have to pay for swimming lessons, he asked. 

The Khanh Hoa provincial authorities plan to build two swimming pools in every district and town with money from the local budget. After the pools are built, estimated to cost VND5 billion, swimming will become a subject in the curriculum.

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Thanh Lich