New pool guidelines for Sharjah schools

Four-year-old boy’s drowning puts spotlight back on swimming pool safety

All student activities in the swimming pool area will be suspended until all the safety and security requirements in new guidelines issued by the Sharjah Education Council are implemented by schools, said education authorities.

The issue of swimming pool safety for children came into renewed focus when a fouryear-old Emirati boy drowned in the swimming pool of a Sharjah school on November 14. A spokesperson for the Sharjah Education Council told Gulf News earlier that they were cooperating with investigators and would take strict measures to ensure tighter safety standards.

Top priority

Mohammad Ahmad Al Mulla, director of the Education Department at the Sharjah Education Council, stressed the council’s keenness to follow up on all safety procedures in schools. Ensuring the safety of students, he said, is top priority.

Following the incident on November 14, the Sharjah Education Council sent circulars to schools in the emirate on the new swimming pool safety measures to be implemented immediately.