Superiority in the swimming industry at the expense of swim safety must stop

“We at Duck Toilet Cleaner recommend Duck Toilet Cleaner.”

Here we go again. This time it’s about swimming lessons. The swimming industry in the Netherlands is made up of nine swim diploma providers, each issuing its own diploma. One of them, the Nationale Raad Zwemveiligheid (NRZ), receives a substantial amount of government subsidy every year to encourage and promote this service.

The NRZ, under the leadership of director Titus Visser, claims that the NRZ diploma line is the “only real,” “nationally recognised” and “official” diploma in the Netherlands. Like many other swimming pools across the country, he also recommends following the NRZ diploma line. In other words, “We at the NRZ recommend the NRZ.” They are trying to establish and hold on to a monopoly using public money, with swim safety held up as the guiding principle. It’s an almost surreal, but unfortunately very real, way of “making big money.”

The quality of swimming instruction in the Netherlands is known and admired around the world. Many countries come to study how our swimming education and its accompanying certification are structured and developed. This applies not only to the NRZ but also to many others, such as ENVOZ and EasySwim. Every provider has its own lesson plan and teaching approach tailored to the various diploma requirements. A great deal of development work has gone into these programmes – they are not simply thrown together. It looks very much as though the NRZ is trying to make itself appear superior by belittling the other providers. But when you dig deeper into the subject, the truth is rather different.

Tros-radar looked into this some time ago. A questionnaire was completed by 5,863 people who had had a child in swimming lessons over the past five years. A range of questions came up which, to those in the know, felt a little like propaganda aimed at putting the other swim diploma providers in a bad light. For instance, 31% were said to be not entirely satisfied with the quality of their swimming instructor, and 25% felt the quality of the knowledge taught was not fit for purpose.

But when you dig further, the lessons taken by those 5,863 parents were 34% via the NRZ’s Zwem-ABC and 9% via the diplomas of Optisport (Optisport applies almost identical requirements, but has simply slapped its own logo on top; behind the scenes, Optisport is in fact in the process of rejoining the NRZ). This means that 43% of the parents surveyed came through an NRZ or NRZ-related diploma. Set that against the 21% (Envoz 8%, EasySwim 6%, KNZB 3%, NSWZ 3%, ZON 1%) from the other providers, and it is above all the NRZ’s quality that is drawing criticism.

The NRZ may present itself as “the” provider, but it clearly falls short too. A little self-reflection would be a good idea before going public as “the only real diploma.” In the same article, Mr Visser also claims that the training recognised by the NRZ is the only one capable of meeting the “high” quality standard of the NRZ licence.

In an interview on 19 March in the Noord Hollands Dagblad, Titus Visser responded to Alkmaar Sport’s departure from the NRZ: “It will more likely be about the staff. To keep our licence, we require that people work with well-qualified staff. You have to pay those people better. Alkmaar Sport is a commercial operator. Organisations like that try to cut costs.” When it came to Alkmaar Sport opting for training other than the NRZ-recognised programme, Visser replied: “They can just knock together some little course of their own and stick people at the poolside. That’s allowed, it’s not against the rules.”

Organisations such as ENVOZ are private training institutes recognised by CRKBO (Centraal Register Kort Beroepsonderwijs) and NRTO (Nederlandse Raad voor Training en Opleiding). Here, swim safety, swimming ability and quality come first. This stands apart from the NRZ, but is certainly no less in terms of quality. Mr Visser’s statements really do bring Duck Toilet Cleaner to mind.

The NRZ’s mission and vision need a complete overhaul. The notion that they are unique holders of the superior swim diploma belongs in the bin, and the subsidy money should be shared fairly among all the swim diploma providers who are there day in, day out, training swimming teachers and children for the future. The coronavirus period has increasingly exposed the gap between “money” and genuine swim safety. You don’t buy swim safety with money – you create it through people’s hard work. Mutual respect for one another’s vision is essential; there is a shared goal of raising swim safety in the Netherlands. That is what is needed. To get there, many sacred cows will still have to be slaughtered, with all the consequences that entails. So long as swim safety gets put firmly on the map and the big money ends up where it truly belongs.

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This article was written in response to an article that appeared in the Noord Hollands Dagblad.

Link: https://www.noordhollandsdagblad.nl/cnt/dmf20220318_61356834?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic

It draws on data from the Tros Radar broadcast of 14 March.

Link: https://radar.avrotros.nl/uitzendingen/gemist/item/nederlands-zwemonderwijs-onder-de-maat/ en https://radar.avrotros.nl/testpanel/uitslagen/item/ouders-niet-op-de-hoogte-van-ongediplomeerde-zweminstructeurs/

And: https://radar.avrotros.nl/testpanel/uitslagen/item/ouders-niet-op-de-hoogte-van-ongediplomeerde-zweminstructeurs/