Survival teaching should intensify at all schools

Over the past few days, everyone’s top priority has been obvious, and that has been to save the lives of 13 people trapped inside a cave in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district. In the long run, however, the case that captured the focus of the entire nation and beyond calls for a major change in the classroom. 
From now on, learning how to survive in difficult circumstances or be helpful when others are caught in dire straits must become a serious, substantial and permanent part of Thai education, especially that designed for the young.
Survival training has been done at schools, but sporadically at best. This is despite the fact that it could matter more than anything else instilled in students. Let’s take the case of the young footballers trapped in a Chiang Rai limestone cave along with an adult coach as an prime example. Certain knowledge would come in handy, like how to conserve food and air, or get messages outside, or simply how to keep calm.
Lack of preparedness is a major disadvantage among Thais, a lot of whom can count on one hand how many fire drills took place at their schools, if there were any at all. First aid is taught in this country, but proper training is limited
. Expert speakers are invited to talk about how useful it is to have survival skills, but what they teach has rarely been put into practice. Few Thai students can actually perform a CPR.
When it comes to theoretical knowledge of the procedures, Thai students are second to none. But actual practice experiences are very hard to come by. 
An improved survival course, therefore, must include intensive training, without which knowledge could be of little help, especially in panicky situations.
Education authorities must first realise that what students learn on survival courses will not be used every day, but it is important all the same.  For example, it could turn out you’ll never make use of knowing the benefit of having a wet cloth in a burning, smoke-filled room, but the knowledge is valuable nonetheless, and could save your life. Such knowledge must be taught, along with how anyone can make himself useful in an emergency.
The crowding outside the Chiang Rai cave will have much to do with natural curiosity, but it likely also has to do with the lack of knowledge about what we should do if there is no direct and obvious way of helping. The site has been crowded and busy, causing sanitation concerns, hampering rescuers’ work, adding to a sense of panic and the circulating of false information. Better education could have helped keep a lot of onlookers from the area, and made members of the news media aware that they must be more considerate when covering rescue attempts.
Some may think what has been transpiring in Chiang Rai is a lesson for a small group of people. However, it is actually a wake-up call for the whole nation, or those involved with education in particular.