First aid and CPR to be taught to all children in schools in England

School pupils in England will soon be learning some key practical life skills alongside their usual lessons.

CPR and first aid are to be taught in all secondary schools in England under new government proposals. Students will learn the purpose of a defibrillator, how to administer basic CPR and some first aid techniques by the time they leave school. The programme is to be rolled out in 2020, the UK government has said. The British education secretary believes it could save lives.

"On arriving at university I was struck that the American students I met knew how to do CPR, and I didn’t have a clue," Damien Hinds told The Guardian. "As a father I want my children to have the knowledge and skills they need to keep themselves safe and help others, and, as education secretary, I want that for every child."

The move has been welcomed by the British Heart Foundation. "Each day people needlessly die because bystanders don’t have the confidence or knowledge to perform CPR and defibrillation," its chief executive Simon Gillespie said in a statement. Fewer than 10 per cent of people who have a heart attack outside of hospital survive, it said. In countries where CPR is taught in schools, the rate of survival in such situations is twice as high.