Teaching students first aid skills can help save lives

Gao Weiwei (right), a lecturer, talks to students about the human body at a summer camp focusing on sex education. The camp, believed to be the first of its kind in Shanghai, was established in 2009. [Zhang Dong / for China Daily]

A middle school invigilator in Taixing, East China's Jiangsu province, died of a heart attack while she was watching over an examination on Jan 14, Xinhua reported. As she was at the back of the classroom the students did not notice until the exam was over, when they immediately called for help and the emergency services. The students are not to blame for the invigilator's death, but they might have been able to save her life if first aid was taught in schools, says Guangzhou Daily on Tuesday:

It is both unfair and inaccurate for some people to accuse the students of being "cold-blooded" about the invigilator's death, because they tried their best the minute they discovered she was in distress. The teacher herself may have underestimated her condition and so did not ask the students for help.

Students are always told to abide by the rules while taking an exam, and they are supposed to focus on the test without being distracted. When they did discover that the invigilator was in need of assistance, they lacked any first aid knowledge and so had to call for help, which they did.

Providing first aid requires not just a good Samaritan spirit but also the necessary skills.

Such training is still insufficient and sometimes absent in many Chinese primary and middle schools, which should pay more attention to teaching students first aid and invite medical professionals to enhance students' practice.