Swimming Lesson Subsidy in Zutphen: A Fine Initiative, but a Structural Approach Is Needed to Truly Solve the Problem

Parents in Zutphen who can't afford to send their child to swimming lessons can breathe a sigh of relief. The municipality will cover the costs low-income families need to obtain swimming diplomas A and B.

“Sinterklaas is on his way again. It shouldn't come down to parents having to choose between presents or swimming lessons. Or between getting the car repaired and paying for swimming lessons,” says Eva Boswinkel, an alderman in Zutphen.

She leaves no room for doubt. In the Netherlands, knowing how to swim is essential. “Especially in Zutphen. With the Berkel and the IJssel, we have dangerous spots. That's why everyone needs to be able to earn swimming diplomas A and B. Money should never stand in the way.”

Swimming diploma B covers more advanced skills and techniques than diploma A, enabling children to cope better in the water. Indispensable in Zutphen, the municipality argues.

1,500 families in Zutphen

Families getting by on no more than 130 percent of the social assistance benchmark can now apply to have the costs reimbursed. For a single parent, that works out to a maximum net income of 1,700.99 euros per month. For a cohabiting or married couple, it's 2,429.97 euros.

They can claim this retroactively from the start of this year. Applications can be submitted through the Kindloket. “We read this week that poverty has dropped everywhere. That's mainly down to a different way of calculating it. We know better in Zutphen,” says Boswinkel.

According to her, at least 1,500 low-income families in Zutphen have to make stressful trade-offs every single day. Such as: do you start your child in swimming lessons or not?

A shortage of swimming instructors

Until now, some of these parents already had the costs for swimming diploma A covered. That applied to residents getting by on no more than 120 percent of the social assistance benchmark. That group has now been expanded, and swimming diploma B has been added.

According to the municipality of Zutphen, covering swimming diploma B costs around 170 euros per child. In total, Zutphen expects this to come to about 10,000 euros per year.

The alderman does add a caveat, however. “The shortage of swimming instructors in Zutphen, just like across the Netherlands, is pretty severe,” says Boswinkel. The waiting time for swimming lessons in Zutphen is about a year and a half. “We have to pull out all the stops to bring in as many new swimming instructors as possible.”

The solution: swimming lessons during school hours

A possible answer to this problem lies in an idea that has been on the table for a while, but keeps getting too little attention: swimming lessons during school hours. This isn't the same as traditional school swimming, but a programme in which children in groups 1 and 2—at a young age—can take swimming lessons during their school day. The Nederlandse Stichting Water- & Zwemveiligheid (NSWZ) has been proposing this for some time as a sustainable solution to the staff shortage and the long waiting lists.

By scheduling swimming lessons at a young age during school hours, there would be far more flexibility in the daily timetable. Children could head to school a little later or go home a little earlier to attend their swimming lessons. This not only offers a solution to the waiting lists, but also allows swimming instructors to work more hours during the day. That makes the job more appealing to new instructors and could help ease the staff shortage.

Local versus national approach

Zutphen's initiative to cover swimming lessons for children from low-income families is commendable, but it's only a bandage on the wound. What's really needed is a broader, national policy that tackles the structural problems surrounding swimming education. Introducing swimming lessons during school hours, for example, requires cooperation at a national level, involving not only municipalities but also schools, swimming pools and the government.

On top of that, it's important to recognise that it's not only municipal swimming pools that stand to benefit from such a system, but also affordable and private swimming schools. By making swimming lessons during school hours possible, these organisations could rent pool time at other moments and offer their staff more hours. This makes the labour market for swimming instructors more attractive and, in the long run, could help resolve the shortage of instructors.

Conclusion

The municipality of Zutphen's initiative to cover swimming lessons for children from low-income families is a step in the right direction. Even so, it's important to acknowledge that this addresses only part of the problem. To ensure water safety for all children in the Netherlands, a broader, national policy is needed. Swimming lessons during school hours offer a chance to tackle the staff shortage and long waiting lists in a structured way, while also contributing to greater water safety among young children. It's time to move this issue higher up the political agenda.