IT'S impossible to predict how we would each respond in an emergency. While we might like to think we’d stay calm and know exactly what to do, when faced with someone who’s ill or injured and needs help, many of us don’t feel confident enough to act.

Last year, the British Red Cross found that only 7 per cent of people in the UK can correctly remember first aid advice and feel willing to give first aid in an emergency.

This suggests that we need better first aid education for everyone and a good place to start would be in schools.

First aid skills are important at every age. In August the Argus ran a story about a nine-year-old boy from Abercarn whose calm, quick thinking when his dad suffered a stroke helped to save his life.

As much as we hope that no child would have to deal with such a terrifying situation, all school children should be taught the skills they need to cope if faced with something similar.

In Wales, first aid is part of the recommended Personal and Social Education Framework. This means that it is not part of the national curriculum but that schools are encouraged to include it in their plans for PSE lessons.

I’m not sure whether this is good enough.

We should be working to make sure that all children in Wales receive the same basic first aid education from a young age and not leave it to the whims of individual schools and teachers.

A number of organisations are campaigning on this issue, including the Red Cross and the British Heart Foundation. They are pushing for first aid to be seen as an essential life skill that all young people should learn before leaving school.

The Welsh Government is currently reviewing the national curriculum. This is an excellent opportunity for the Government to consider including first aid in the curriculum so that it becomes a statutory requirement for schools.

We should be working to ensure that the next generation are equipped with these vital life-saving skills. Teaching first aid from a young age means that young people will feel confident acting in an emergency.

There are times when this could be the difference between life and death.