To popularize swimming education for elementary and middle school students should "do what you should do"

[Bright Times Review]

　　Hainan has become the country's first province with a clear task map and timetable in terms of universally popularizing swimming education for primary and middle school students.

According to media reports, on June 15th, the Hainan Provincial Department of Education held the province’s third video promotion meeting for universal swimming education for primary and secondary school students in 2021, requiring that all primary school graduates in the province learn to swim before the end of August this year. The third grade of junior high school will all learn to swim before the end of November this year; for the 13 towns and villages that have not yet been covered by swimming pools, swimming pools must be built and put into use before the end of November this year.

　　It is not the first time that the popularization of swimming education for elementary and middle school students has been put on the policy agenda. However, like Hainan, swimming education is clearly mentioned as a "top project" and the height of the "tough battle", and "establishment of ledger, inverted schedule, wall chart operations, and listing supervision." "It's still rare.

From the current perspective, Hainan’s strengthening of swimming education for elementary and middle school students has obvious pertinence and direction: it is based on “education” and its focus is on “safety”.

　　In China, drowning is the leading cause of death from injuries to children under the age of 14, and accidental drowning accounts for 57% of accidental deaths among children.

Today, child drowning incidents are frequent and still a social pain point: during the "May 1st" period, 8 students drowned in Lingshan, Guangxi; on May 15, 3 children died by drowning in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi; on May 22, Five children drowned in Xianxian County, Hebei...These figures continue to highlight the importance of education to prevent drowning.

　　Drowning prevention requires a combination of dredging and blocking.

If it is said that setting up safety warning signs in ponds, reservoirs, weirs, and riversides or putting on-line anti-drowning face recognition monitoring and early warning system is "blocking", then developing swimming education is "shunning."

Swimming is not just a physical fitness event, but also an important emergency self-rescue skill. For people, this skill is not "dispensable", but "should be".

In 2017, Tsinghua University introduced a new school rule of "Cannot swim and cannot graduate".

　　Swimming education must start with the child.

In recent years, there have been calls from time to time to "include swimming skills in compulsory education compulsory courses", which has also been echoed by policies.

In October last year, the Ministry of Education stated in a public response to the relevant suggestions of the representative committee that it had included public safety education in primary and secondary schools, including the popularization of swimming skills, into the subject curriculum standards.

Recently, the Ministry of Education issued a notice mentioning that schools in areas with a high incidence of drowning accidents should actively create conditions and offer swimming lessons to help students master swimming skills and self-rescue methods.

　　There is no shortage of exploration in this area at the local level.

For example, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education issued a notice in July 2018 that schools at all levels and types of schools should take students' learning swimming as a physical education content, open swimming classes, and gradually achieve full coverage of universal swimming education for students; at the same time, all localities should take high school entrance examination sports as an example. Opportunity to take swimming as a compulsory option for sports in the senior high school entrance examination.

And Hainan, which had frequent drowning accidents due to dense beach swimming pools, complicated sea conditions and hot weather, took earlier and greater steps.

As early as 2017, Hainan issued the "Implementation Plan for Popularizing Swimming Education for Primary and Secondary School Students in Hainan Province", which proposed to achieve the goal of "everyone who graduated from primary and secondary schools in the province can swim safely" by 2020, and decomposes the tasks on a yearly basis.

Correspondingly, child drowning deaths have been drastically reduced.

　　This also highlights one point: to popularize swimming education for primary and middle school students, we should do our best and do our best.

In teaching children to "prevent drowning, understand self-help, and strengthen their bodies," localities, especially places with wide waters, should be deployed as soon as possible. They should be used as an important position in the safety education chess game, and this is also in line with the reform design of increasing the weight of the physical education class.

　　For many places, the problem of popularizing swimming education for primary and middle school students is not "necessity" but "feasibility".

Bringing swimming education into the classroom may face limitations in venues and teachers.

However, there are always more solutions than difficulties, and the key to the problem lies in whether it can pay enough attention and whether it is willing to invest.

Hainan requires that "in 2018, basically complete the task of having at least one swimming pool in each township", and focus on revitalizing the existing swimming pools, which can be used for reference.

Some professionals mentioned that the school cooperates with surrounding swimming pools and clubs, and relying on off-campus swimming pools and external teachers to carry out swimming education is not without reference value.

　　For all localities, strengthening the swimming education of primary and middle school students is not an option, but a necessary option. As for whether to advance gradually or fast forward, it is necessary to decide where to advance the rhythm.

Nowadays, some provinces have taken the lead, and other places should follow.

(Author: She Zongming, a media commentator)