The Education Ministry issued a circular on Wednesday making swimming training and practice compulsory for the students of higher secondary, secondary, primary level as part of their academic activities aiming to reduce deaths from drowning. Referring to a Unicef study, the circular said at least 48 children, aged between 5-17, die in drowning incidents every day in the country while it is over 18,000 a year as they do not know how to swim. “That’s why the government has taken initiatives to introduce swimming training …in all higher secondary, secondary and junior secondary schools, equivalent madrasas and technical educational institutions of the country as part of the regular academic activities,” said the circular.
The circular has directed all the educational institutions to take necessary measures in this regard. It also instructed for cleaning the ponds to be used for training and practice, and making them suitable for swimming.
Education Engineering Department will take necessary steps to make the ponds and water bodies suitable for use while Zila Parishad and Upazila Parishad will assist it, the circular said. It further said the educational institutions will have to procure lifejackets and other necessary materials for the training and practices.
According to the circular, a physical education teacher or swimming instructor must be present during the training and practices. Educational institutions in the metropolitan cities which don’t have their own ponds or water bodies will have to arrange swimming facility for the students using ponds and waterbodies of other colleges or universities or the National Sports Complex, it said. Headmasters and Principals of the institutions will have to submit progress reports on the swimming programme to the local Education office each month, the circular added.
Besides, the thana and upazila-level education officers will have to submit their reports to the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education after every three months which will submit those to the Education Ministry.
