Abstract

Taiwan is an island which is located in Asia and has abundant water resources and subtropical climate. Therefore, aquatic sports are popular sports and leisure activities. According to the statistics, 2011–2016, there were 365 drowning deaths which 9% of them were students. The purpose of this study aims to analyze the facts of drowning, to clarify the death factors so that the results could be recommended to the government for policy making.

By analyzing the data, the major drowning subjects were between 10 to 15 years old, 5th to 9th grader, who always companied with friends. To prevent and reduce students’ death from drowning accidents, the authority of Taiwanese has devoted abundant resources to deliver swimming skill and water safety education among different levels of schools.

Since 2002, the Sports Administration, Ministry of Education has started to implement the swimming program for students. In 2009, the water self-help program was implemented as well. In addition, the water skill indicators both for swimming and self-help skill were also established. Furthermore, in order to cultivating and enhancing students’ ability to swim and self-help, the Sports Administration, Ministry of Education conducted a publicity campaign on campus water safety since 2014.

For the future, since 2018, water safety experts developed Hydrophilic Adaptation Program, Water Self-help Program, Water Security Program, Rescue Skills Operation and Water Safety Teacher Program. With these sound educational program and plan, all students can generally receive the knowledge of water safety and self-help skills. These programs will be delivered through various media which include mobile device. The Water Safety Literacy Scale (WSLS) will be conducted in 2018 to exam the outcome of these programs.