IstheADiplomaEnough?WhyYourChildAlsoNeedstheBandCDiplomas[2026]

The A diploma hangs on the wall, grandma has called, and the fridge is full of congratulatory cake. For many parents, this feels like the finish line of the swimming journey. It is not. The A diploma is a milestone, and the difference between stopping after A or continuing to B and C is exactly the difference between swimming in a calm pool and being able to save yourself in the waters where children actually end up.

The question "is the A diploma enough?" receives a clear answer from swimming safety organizations: no. Not because the A diploma is worthless, but because it answers a different question than you might think. Below is what A, B, and C precisely mean, what the numbers say, and what it costs, so you can make this decision with your head and not just your feelings.

What Does the A Diploma Actually Mean?

The National Council for Swimming Safety (NRZ), the organization behind the National Swimming Diplomas, describes the A diploma as the skills for a swimming pool without attractions. Calm water, no waves, no slides. That is much more precise than "your child can swim," and it immediately clarifies why two more diplomas follow.

What Your Child Can Do After the A Diploma

After the A diploma, your child can float, tread water, swim breaststroke and backstroke, and orient underwater in a calm pool. Also included in the exam is unexpectedly falling into water with clothes on and independently climbing out of the water. In a manageable pool, with a bottom and edge within reach, your child can save themselves.

What Your Child Cannot Do After the A Diploma

What the A diploma does not cover is everything that makes a pool exciting: a wave pool, a wild water slide, a rapid current. And it certainly does not cover open water. A recreational pond, ditch, or canal has no line, no bottom, and no supervision on the side. That’s where the B diploma comes in, followed by the C diploma.

The Numbers: Most Children Stop Too Early

In the Netherlands, Almost Six out of Ten Children Do Not Have the Full Swim-ABC

The Mulier Institute measures biennially how many children have which diplomas. In 2024, 38 percent of children aged 6 to 12 had the A, B, and C diplomas, compared to 27 percent in 2012. Conversely, almost six out of ten children do not have the full Swim-ABC. Another figure from the same research: 14 percent of children have no swimming diploma at all, which translates to about four children per class of thirty.

These numbers are not distant statistics. In 2023, the CBS counted 98 drownings among Dutch residents, and in 2024 there were 100, reported NOS, with people aged 60 and older as the largest group. Drowning affects not only weak swimmers; it also affects people who once earned a diploma but never swam again.

Worldwide, Drowning Is One of the Leading Causes of Death Among Children

The Netherlands is no exception, rather an illustration of a global pattern. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 300,000 people drown annually, and children under five years old make up nearly a quarter of all victims. Worldwide, drowning is the fourth leading cause of death for children aged 1 to 4 and the third for children aged 5 to 14.

In the United States, the picture is even clearer: drowning is the leading cause of death for children aged 1 to 4, reports the American Red Cross, with about 4,000 fatal drownings annually and twice as many drownings with injury. The numbers vary by country, but the lesson does not: young children and water without skills is a risk, in every country, in every type of water.

Swimming Lessons Themselves Significantly Reduce the Risk

Swimming lessons are not just a hobby. An American study among thousands of children found that formal swimming lessons reduced the risk of drowning in children aged 1 to 4 by 88 percent. This makes continuing to B and C not a luxury, but one of the most effective safety measures a parent can take.

What Do You Learn with the B Diploma?

A Pool with Attractions

The B diploma is, according to the NRZ, the step towards a pool with attractions: a wave pool, a wild water slide, a rapid current. Your child learns to handle unpredictable water. Waves that push you underwater, currents that carry you away, a slide that ends in deep water. Exactly the situations where children end up in a recreational pool without thinking.

Clothing, Shoes, and Unexpectedly Falling into Water

At B, unexpectedly falling into water is expanded: with clothes and shoes on, over longer distances, and with the instruction to stay calm and find an edge independently. It sounds simple, but anyone who has ever been in water wearing jeans knows it is not.

What Do You Learn with the C Diploma?

The C Diploma Is the National Swimming Safety Standard

The C diploma is the diploma that ultimately matters. The NRZ states clearly: you meet the National Swimming Safety Standard if you hold the National Swimming Diploma C. With C, your child masters the skills for a pool with attractions and for open water without currents or large waves: recreational ponds, wider ditches, and canals.

Open Water Is Not a Large Pool

Open water feels different than a pool: no line to hold onto, no clear bottom, colder water, plants, no overview. Children who have only learned to swim in a pool are startled by this, and fear is the most dangerous thing in water. The C diploma trains exactly that: longer distances, extended treading water, orientation, and knowing where you should and should not enter the water.

Diploma systems differ by country. Germany has the Seepferdchen, France uses the Sauv'nage, Australia has levels. The common thread everywhere is the same: a child is only swimming safe if they can save themselves in the water they actually encounter, not just in a raked pool.

How Long Do B and C Take, and What Do They Cost?

A Realistic Timeline

How long children take to get the A diploma is explained in the overview with the realistic timeline. After that, it usually goes faster: the B diploma is often achievable within six to twelve months, and the C diploma as well. The full Swim-ABC thus takes on average three to four years. How fast it goes depends on your child's age, how often they have lessons per week, and how the swim school organizes groups.

The Costs at a Glance

Per lesson, you pay the same rate for B and C as for A, and because your child can already swim, fewer lessons are often needed. The median prices per lesson and total trajectory costs are shown in the tables below.

Source: rate comparison Dutch swim schools, June 2026. Median is the middle amount in the dataset. Amounts include VAT.

Source: our complete overview of swimming lesson costs [2026].

The biggest cost item is not the hourly rate but the duration. Every month a child takes longer to get a diploma is an extra month of lesson fees. Good progress tracking shortens that time because you can see exactly where practice is still needed. And for those who need it: many municipalities provide subsidies for swimming lessons, also for the follow-up trajectory, and the Youth Fund for Sports and Culture reimburses swimming lessons for families with financial difficulties.

How to Keep Your Child Motivated for B and C

Small Goals, Celebrate More Often

After the celebration around the A diploma, the next diploma seems far away, and children often drop out. The trick is to break the trajectory into parts: not "two more years to C," but "this week the backstroke without aids." Celebrate every new skill achieved, not just the final diploma. The article about motivation between swimming lessons offers more ways to break a motivation dip.

Make Progress Visible

Children and parents persevere if they see progress. Swimmigo helps with that: the app works with seven levels from red to gold and 86 skills, and parents see per exercise what their child masters. Each level has a free certificate, so there is more to celebrate than just the final exam. Swimmigo is free and available in five languages because motivation works the same in every country. Check out the seven levels of Swimmigo and what the app does for parents.

Keep Swimming Outside of Lessons

The NRZ puts it this way: swimming safety is maintained only by continuing to practice. A weekly hour of free swimming, going into the water once with clothes on, taking a snorkel on vacation. The diploma is not an endpoint but a passport, and children who swim outside lessons enter the next lesson with more confidence.

When Is It Responsible to Stop After A?

The Honest Exceptions

There are situations where the Swim-ABC is not the right goal. For children with disabilities for whom the full ABC is not achievable, the NRZ issues swimming certificates A, B, and C; these are also steps toward swimming safety. And for children who swim a lot weekly, for example at a club, the risk is different. The question that counts then is the same: can my child save themselves in open water, with clothes on, without help?

Even with a Diploma, Supervision Remains the Norm

A diploma does not replace eyes on the water. The American Red Cross names supervision, fencing, and swimming rules as at least as important as swimming lessons themselves. Drowning is silent and quick; even children with a C diploma should swim under supervision, in every country, in every pool, and in every pond.

Conclusion

The A diploma is a nice first step, not an endpoint. For wave pools, slides, and open water, you need the B and C diplomas, and only with C do you meet the National Swimming Safety Standard. Most children stop too early, while B and C are not more expensive per lesson and often take less time. Track progress, celebrate every milestone, and give your child the skills that make a difference in every country.

Want to know more about how swimming lesson progress works? Then check out the seven levels of Swimmigo, read how the student tracking system works, or see what Swimmigo does for parents and instructors.

Sources

• WHO: Drowning, factsheet, May 2026
• American Red Cross: Drowning Prevention and Facts, accessed August 2026
• Mulier Institute: More children have A, B, and C diplomas; swimming skills of vulnerable children lag behind, November 2025
• National Council for Swimming Safety: Swim-ABC and other National Swimming Diplomas, accessed August 2026
• CBS: 98 residents drowned in 2023, July 2024
• NOS: Last year 100 residents of the Netherlands drowned, 2025
• Brenner et al.: Association Between Swimming Lessons and Drowning in Childhood, 2009