11 hours Ago By 79548
The Dutch government has decided not to reinstate mandatory school swimming, citing high costs and concerns over the amount of time required for teachers, The program, which would cost around 145 million euros, has been rejected. Secretary of State for Youth, Prevention, and Sports, Karremans, emphasized that schools must focus on core academic subjects. “Schools need to focus on fundamental skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic,” Karremans wrote in a letter to the Tweede Kamer, the Dutch parliament.
Despite the government's decision, members of the Tweede Kamer had advocated for the return of school swimming. Many are concerned that increasing numbers of children, especially from lower-income or migrant backgrounds, are failing to earn swimming diplomas. The cost of obtaining a swimming diploma, which ranges from 500 to 1,100 euros per child, is often too expensive for many families.
This amount includes costs for lessons, registration, and transportation. Some lawmakers see the reintroduction of school swimming as a way to boost pool attendance and ease the burden on busy parents. They argue that many children miss out on lessons outside of school.
However, the government conducted an evaluation and concluded that mandatory swimming lessons would be too time-consuming. Teachers expressed concerns about the amount of time spent on travel, changing, and the lessons themselves, arguing that it would take away from core academic instruction. School swimming was introduced in the 1960s to reduce the risk of drowning in the water-rich Netherlands.
Children from around age eight would travel weekly to swimming pools to earn their diplomas. Over time, the responsibility for funding school swimming shifted to municipalities and schools, but many began to drop the program in the 1980s due to its high costs. As a result, many parents took on the responsibility of teaching their children to swim at their own expense.
While school swimming is no longer mandatory, the government has acknowledged that more children are now lacking swimming diplomas. In 2022, 13 percent of children did not have any diploma, a figure that has raised concern. The government has pointed out that municipalities offer financial support for swimming lessons for low-income families.
However, these programs are often hard to find online and difficult to navigate. Karremans wrote that many children from disadvantaged backgrounds still face obstacles in obtaining swimming lessons. To address these concerns, Karremans said he would ask municipalities to make financial support more visible and easier to understand.
Additionally, he plans to focus on identifying children without swimming diplomas and ensuring they are able to obtain at least one certification. “We need to better identify children without swimming diplomas and find ways to help them earn at least one,” Karremans said..
