School, college students must learn to swim from now on

The education ministry yesterday issued a circular making swimming training and practice compulsory for the students of higher secondary, secondary, primary levels to reduce deaths from drowning.

Referring to a Unicef study, the circular said over 18,000 children, aged between 5-17, die from drowning in Bangladesh 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, it said.

The circular has directed all the educational institutions to take measures in this regard. It also instructed for cleaning the ponds to make them suitable for swimming.

The Education Engineering Department with the help of Zila Parishad and Upazila Parishad will take necessary steps to make the ponds and water bodies suitable for use, said the circular adding that the educational institutions will have to procure lifejackets and other necessary materials for swimming.

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 waterbodies will have to arrange swimming in ponds and waterbodies of other institutions or the National Sports Complex, it said.

The institution heads will have to submit progress reports on swimming to the local education office each month, the circular added. The local education officers will have to submit their reports to the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education after every three months.