Education Ministry: more school kids must learn how to swim
In an effort to save lives, the Ministry of Education is launching a program to advance swimming lessons in communities most often affected by drowning
37 children died from drowning last year, most of them from the Arab or ultra-Orthodox communities.
The education ministry is launching a program to teach school kids from these sectors, how to swim, as part of the regular physical education curriculum.
According to ministry officials, 200 children drowned in Israel in the past decade.
They hope the new program address the problem of drowning which they call a "silent death", noting these children are unable to call for help and warning it takes 2 minutes to lose consciousness and only 6 minutes for irreparable brane damage to occur.
The ministry plans to increase the number of students in their swimming programs from 67,000 to 90,000 and invest NIS500,000 in its implementation.
