She really does her best, the teenager in the black swimsuit. But no matter how hard she kicks her feet to stay afloat on her back, she sinks again and again. She comes out with her eyes closed. The girl will go to high school after the summer holidays, but she doesn’t have a swimming diploma yet.
She has been practising hard this week in the pool at the Optisport Bijlmer sports centre on the Anton de Komplein in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. Like six hundred other Amsterdam teenagers who for various reasons never swim, she hopes to earn her A-diploma during the summer holidays.
The number of swimming diplomas is decreasing
Amsterdam’s children are not the only ones who are at a disadvantage when it comes to swimming. In the Netherlands, more than one in ten children between the ages of 6 and 16 do not have a swimming diploma, according to figures from the Mulier Institute from 2022. The proportion of children who cannot swim increased enormously during the corona pandemic, when swimming pools were temporarily closed.
In Amsterdam, too, the number of children with a diploma has decreased. The municipality is taking steps to do something about it. More and more primary schools are reintroducing school swimming. In about half of the primary schools, children in Amsterdam obtain their diploma through school swimming.
However, the number of eighth-graders in the city with an A-level diploma fell from 95.2 percent in 2020 to 92.3 percent in 2023. Children without a diploma often come from vulnerable families. In areas where low-income families live, the possession of diplomas is proportionally much lower than in more prosperous parts of the city. In Zuidoost, where the swimming pool is located, 85.6 percent of children have a swimming diploma. In the Netherlands, children can start learning to swim at the age of four and a half.
Time and money are obstacles.
According to Heidi Oudejans, head of the school swimming programme at the municipality of Amsterdam, time and money are the main reasons why parents sometimes wait to have their children take swimming lessons. “There are a lot of single-parent families in this neighbourhood. An adult must always accompany the swimming lessons. But how do you organise that as a single parent?”
Often, these families only come to the pool when the youngest child in the family can also start taking swimming lessons. “Then they can all start together.”
But then there needs to be space. For example, anyone living in the centre who doesn’t register in time can find themselves with long waiting lists. “At one point there was a two-year waiting list for Saturdays at the centre. You could start straight away on Monday afternoon. But yes, Saturday often fits better into the family schedule,” says Oudejans.
Then there are the costs. A swimming diploma can easily cost more than 1,000 euros. People on low incomes can claim all kinds of funds, such as the Youth Fund for Sport and Culture, which pays for swimming diplomas if parents are unable to do so themselves.
But sometimes there are still barriers that prevent parents from coming, says Joost Beijer, head of the Bijlmer sports centre team. On that day, he stands at the edge of the pool to coordinate.
The forms are too complicated for some parents.
For example, last week there was a mother who wanted at the last minute to sign her child up for swimming lessons during the summer holidays. After all, she didn’t come. “Sometimes the form that parents have to fill out to request something like this is quite complicated,” says Beijer. “She didn’t really know what they were asking of her. I think that’s why she didn’t dare to do it.”
There are always staff available to help parents fill out forms. But sometimes they stay away, despite that extra support.
Beijer is standing at the edge of the deep pool, where the children a little further away are learning. Some are wearing clothing to practice in the water.
No swimming required
Two children move smoothly through the water behind the dotted lines. They will receive their swimming certificate today. No swimming is required. Instructors don’t want to waste time checking whether a child can do something when they already know they have mastered that skill.
Beijer shows off her tablet, which has all the plus signs next to the skills the children are taught. There are two plus signs behind the names of the two children.
It won’t be long before they can proudly show their diploma to their parents, who wait behind the window until their children have finished.
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House Majority Wants Plan to Reintroduce School Swimming
Fewer and fewer children have a swimming diploma. The House of Representatives wants the cabinet to consider how swimming can be reintroduced in schools. The House also wants to keep swimming pools in public hands.