Gov’t tasked to integrate safe swimming into the curriculum

Civil society is urging the government to incorporate survival-swimming training into the education curriculum to reduce fatalities resulting from drowning. 

According to a 2020 report by the Makerere University School of Public Health Center for Trauma, Injury, and Disability Unit, Uganda loses nearly 3,000 people to drowning every year, averaging nine deaths per day. Mayuge district has the highest drowning death rate at 24 per 100,000 people, followed by Rakai with 13 per 100,000, and Masaka with six per 100,000.

Reach a Hand Uganda, a non-governmental organization focused on the safety of lake users, is calling on the government to incorporate survival-swimming training into the education curriculum to reduce fatalities resulting from drowning.

In response, Reach a Hand Uganda has worked with various stakeholders, including academic institutions, to develop a draft National Survival Swimming Curriculum. This curriculum is intended to be presented to the ministry of Education and Sports for consideration as a key intervention to address the drowning crisis.

The organization also launched a five-year project aimed at preventing drowning in the districts of Masaka, Rakai, and Mayuge, which have been identified as hotspots for water-related accidents based on research findings.

Humphrey Namibanya, executive director of Reach a Hand Uganda, highlighted the need for such initiatives while launching the project in Masaka district. He noted that a pilot program was carried out in schools within these high-risk areas, where students were trained in survival swimming and rescue operations.

Namibanya stressed that the inclusion of survival-swimming skills in the curriculum for both primary and secondary students is a crucial strategic response to water accidents, which occur not only in lakeside communities but also in non-lakeside areas. He pointed out that drowning continues to be a silent epidemic claiming lives across the country, and providing survival skills through schools could have a far-reaching impact.

“The technical working group, they have put together a curriculum that is being reviewed. For the learners and all those who are going to go through the training on how to swim, you’re going to use a standard curriculum which we think will guide our work in the swim instruction area, now and in the future. For us, it is very important that we do communicate and make sure that we make communities aware of the dangers of the water because most of them have lived their lives around the water and don’t perceive the danger or the risk of drowning. It is about saving lives, it’s about ensuring that no parent loses a child to a preventable tragedy, no fisherman faces unnecessary risk and no young person feels very unsafe near the water,” he said.

Emmanuel Balinda, the project coordinator, emphasized that, in addition to incorporating survival swimming into the school curriculum, the organization also advocates for reduced taxes on water safety equipment like lifejackets and floating buoys. This, he says will make the gear more affordable for fishermen and other lake users, ultimately enhancing safety.

Balinda explained that a majority of people travelling on water lack lifejackets, making them highly vulnerable in case of accidents. Even those with lifejackets often have substandard equipment that doesn’t offer the necessary protection. He stressed the importance of making these safety items affordable by reducing import taxes. 

The project also aims to train key community leaders in survival swimming and rescue operations to assist marine police personnel during accidents and to help in prevention efforts. Students from St Mugagga Vocational Secondary School in Kyannamukaaka sub-county, Masaka district, who participated in the pilot training, expressed their appreciation for the skills they learned, recognizing their relevance in their daily lives. 

They noted that many learners are susceptible to water accidents and are therefore in dire need of survival skills.