New national swimming framework aims to reach 500,000 participants over 5 years

Straits Times

2 days ago

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A SwimStart class being conducted at the launch of the new swimming framework held at Bedok ActiveSG Swimming Complex on July 5.
SINGAPORE - Over the next five years, 500,000 people will get the chance to learn to swim and build water confidence – among other skills – in an ambitious goal set by Singapore Aquatics (SAQ) for its new national swimming framework.
On July 5, the national aquatics governing body unveiled the initiative, 'SwimSingapore presented by OCBC' to revamp swimming education in Singapore. The framework has four new segments – SwimStart, SwimFun, SwimFurther, and SwimBetter – and includes two pre-existing programmes, SwimSafer and SwimFaster.
Presenting sponsor OCBC will invest $1 million to cover operational costs such as assessors' fees, certification costs and outreach expenses over the next five years.
Under the new structure, infants as young as under a year old can begin their swimming journey through the six-stage SwimStart, which begins with parent-accompanied water introduction and encourages toddlers to explore independent water movement.
Young children aged four to six will then move on to SwimFun, a three-stage programme which focuses on promoting water confidence, movement, and skills development without parent accompaniment.
Both SwimStart and SwimFun will be offered through SwimSingapore-accredited swim schools and private instructors, with standardised assessment frameworks and prescribed safety guidelines, though the programme may vary depending on the provider.
Previously, the national swimming education curriculum began at Primary 3 through SwimSafer as a mandatory component of Physical Education (PE) classes. SwimSafer has been incorporated into the national framework, with a new system of centralised assessments conducted at five locations around Singapore.
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Designed for mass participation, the first three stages are aimed at beginners, who can then decide to pursue swimming recreationally, through SwimFurther, or competitively through SwimBetter and SwimFaster.
Speaking at the launch on July 5, SAQ president Kenneth Goh said: 'At the national level, we are really looking very broadly at encouraging participation at all ages, to make participation in public sports as accessible as possible.'
Garett Lee, master trainer for the SwimSafer programme, noted that what the framework is doing is 'really engaging the community, making every Singaporean a swimmer'.
The 50-year-old, who has 29 years of coaching experience, added that though parents and children were often faced with situations where co-curricular activities demanded much of their time, developing swimming skills has remained a priority.
The curriculum for SwimStart and SwimFun was unveiled at the launch event held at Heartbeat @ Bedok ActiveSG Swimming Complex on July 5. Members of the public had the opportunity to participate in trial swimming classes, which included sessions for infants to build water confidence, and game stations.
IT professional Malkar Ganesh Hari, 36, was one of the participants in the trial swimming class for SwimStart, along with his wife, Deokar Shital, 35.
'This is a fantastic programme – I believe that swimming is one of the main life skills, and everyone should know the basic skills,' he said.
Although his older son, who is now eight years old, was only introduced to swimming at the age of four, he took the opportunity to enrol his 15-month-old son, Agastya, for the trial swimming class.
The toddler enjoyed his time in the pool so much that his parents are now planning on engaging one of the SwimStart coaches.
The curriculum for the following three stages – SwimFurther, SwimBetter, and SwimFaster – will be introduced progressively over the next 12 months. SwimFurther, which is aimed at recreational swimmers, introduces distance-based achievements without timing requirements, while SwimBetter is targeted at aspiring competitive swimmers who wish to improve their swimming proficiency.
SwimFaster, which is the other existing segment being integrated into the framework, is a performance benchmarking programme adapted from the former Singapore Swimming Proficiency Awards (SSPA). This route is for those who are swimming competitively, or participants who have completed SwimBetter.
Goh said: 'We have all these activities in place already – we have coaches, we have swim schools doing their programmes, and this national framework just puts them all together on a coherent roadmap to see how we can work together and how we can partner closely together.'
'It's about supporting talent, it's also about preparing talent so that for the talent we have entering the high performance pipeline, it provides some degree of standardisation and some better expectations on what their skill levels are.'
Lee said that integrating these new segments into the framework also helps to support the current swimming education ecosystem, which includes over 800 coaches within the National Registry of Coaches (NROC) and community members who wish to get their children started on swimming.
Also present at the event launch was MP for East Coast GRC Tan Kiat How, who is also Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Digital Development and Information and Ministry of Health.
He said: 'It's an important framework to have a national curriculum around giving everyone a foundation to learn how to start swimming as a fun discipline, and also a pathway for more competitive performance.'