Teaching first aid to children from a young age will help to equip them with skills they can use throughout their lives, it has been claimed.

Speaking this week, Dr Jenny McWhirter of the UK's Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said that teaching young people how to prevent dangerous incidents from occurring is vitally important.

"It empowers children to act on their instinct to help others, but safely," she commented.

Although first aid should not necessarily be made compulsory, it should be viewed as an important add-on.

"Schools have a lot of compulsory topics and this is just one possible competence that children and young people can use to keep themselves and others safe," Dr McWhirter added.

Meanwhile, it was reported by the Irish Independent today that children in Ireland are lagging behind where computer skills are concerned, suggesting that some non-compulsory areas of education are being neglected.

Comments