Parents’ group: Swimming lessons for kids a good idea, but let parents handle it
It is important for children to pick up swimming skills but the responsibility of teaching them should be left to their parents, and not schools, said the Parent Action Group for Education (Page) today.
Its chairperson Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim was responding to the statement by Education Minister Maszlee yesterday, urging hotels to allow students to use their swimming pools, for the introduction of swimming lessons in schools, following a rise in drowning incidents involving students.
"We agree that children must know swimming. But how they learn it, is up to the parents, unless swimming pools can be built in all schools...
It is important for children to pick up swimming skills but the responsibility of teaching them should be left to their parents, and not schools, said the Parent Action Group for Education (Page) today.
Its chairperson Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim was responding to the statement by Education Minister Maszlee yesterday, urging hotels to allow students to use their swimming pools, for the introduction of swimming lessons in schools, following a rise in drowning incidents involving students.
"We agree that children must know swimming. But how they learn it, is up to the parents, unless swimming pools can be built in all schools.
"Parents should play their part (in sending their kids to learn swimming) and not leave it to their children's schools.
"He (Maszlee) cannot save the world," Noor Azimah told Malaysiakini when contacted.
Elaborating, Noor Azimah said the minister's suggestion to rope in hotels in the effort to educate children to swim, is not practical.
"We think it would place a heavy burden on schools, teachers, and hotels," she added.
"Instead, parents should send their children to community pools to formally learn swimming."
On Oct 5, Maszlee said his ministry is studying the need to make swimming a compulsory subject in schools, amid the rise in drowning cases involving students.
A study by the Perak Clinical Research Centre in October last year showed that drowning caused the highest fatality involving children, after road accidents.
The research showed that about 500 children, aged between one and 18, drown every year.
Maszlee's proposal yesterday has also been shot down by the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH).
MAH head Yap Lip Seng has cited safety concerns, and accessibility issues, as reasons.
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