Teaching students of how to swim to prevent them from drowning in an unused pond

[webfact]

Teaching students of how to swim to prevent them from drowning in an unused pond



BANGKOK: -- Even if there is no swimming pool in Tambon Pongpoei, Muang district of Bung Karn province, it does not discourage a physical education teacher of Ban Huey Samyod Thevakul school from teaching his students on how to swim just for the sake of sparing them from drowning.

There have been several cases of drowning among youngsters in Muang district and one of the reasons is that all those who drowned didn’t know how to swim.

The management of Ban Huey Samyod Thevakul has recently come up with an idea to turn an unused pond, called Sra Ban Thung, into a swimming pool. Moreover, both the teachers and students joined hands in making life vests by using abandoned plastic bottles and having them sewn together with leftover cloth.

The school also received goggles donated by swimming coaches from Chiang Mai.

Swimming class is held every Friday afternoon and it is regarded as an extra-curricular activity in accordance with the government’s new policy to reduce the hours spent by students in classrooms so they will have more time for activities outside classrooms.

Mr Kaweerat Pornnikom, the swimming coach of the school, said that what he taught the students is teach them of how to survive in the water. He said he did not strictly attach to theory but merely wanted the students to be able to float in the water so that they will not drown.

Ms Naowarat Wongpradoong, a Pathom 6 student, said it was a great fun to learn how to swim even though the water in the pond is a bit murky.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/teaching-students-swim-prevent-drowning/


-- Thai PBS 2016-06-28

[Gandtee]

Well done. Swimming is a must. Being a genius in maths is of no help when in six feet of water and unable to swim. I taught all my Thai youngster relatives to swim years ago. The best thing they ever did to save their lives.

[DoctorG]

Nice to see a good story on here. Well done teacher.

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

the Thai Education minister should be the one with the responsibility of making this mandatory.

Dereliction of duty.

Goood on this teacher anyway.

Maybe this teacher should be promoted to Education minister, likely more qualified for the job.

[halloween]

Taught my girls, tried with my wife. Someone had "taught" her before, an almost vertical position, huge amounts of twisting and thrashing about for very little forward movement. Absolutely refused to put her face in the water.

[Catoni]

One of the first things I did as a dad, was get my kids into "water babies" and then into regular swimming lessons as soon as possible for their young age.. It should be REQUIRED of every parent to make sure their children learn Drownproofing and swimming.. Such an easy way to prevent tragedy.

All my children are excellent strong swimmers today...

[sanukjim]

I have been always ammased at how so many Thais do not know how to swim in a land with so many kalongs and ponds.

[Morakot]

learn Drownproofing

Thanks for this! Very useful.

[tuanku]

Good initiative, but looks like unsafe practice with that many kids and the water so muddy. No chance of spotting a submerged body, and no evidence of the bottle life vests either. It would be a shame if there was an accident because of the way the swimming class is conducted. Surely there is a stream or river pool nearby with better water than this. With the money spent on education in Thailand, every school over about 400 students should be able to afford an open air swimming pool - if the money were only used sensibly.

[cardinalblue]

And the googles are used for????