He saw his oldest children swimming several times, but last weekend the party was about Mbarki himself. His father was looking aside, at home there was cake with his name on it. In the Keizersgracht, Mbarki participated in a record attempt to water and afterwards he received his A-diploma.
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He had learned himself a little swimming. “But on vacation I could not dedicate my children, I always did the bombs,” says the alderman. “I was not very senang in the water so far, it certainly stopped me in things. That you say on the beach that you are keeping sunbathing while you actually can’t come along.”
Children without a diploma doubled
Last summer Mbarki took several lessons in the Noorderparkbad. “I now realize that children really need a lot of strength and technology for an A diploma,” he says. By swimming in the Keizersgracht, he hopes to inspire other adults. “It is never too late to get your diploma,” he says.
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“We also see that the number of children without a diploma has doubled, it is becoming increasingly urgent,” says the alderman. School swimming has been abolished nationally, but in Amsterdam schools can still register for it. About half do that. Mbarki hopes that this week the House of Representatives will vote for a motion that re -entering school swimming as a basic provision.
“This certainly tastes like more,” said Alderman Sofyan Mbarki. © Richard Mouw
The ‘diploma possession’ in Amsterdam differs per neighborhood. In the center, almost everyone can stay behind, suburbs New West and Southeast. “It is also a socio -economic issue,” says Mbarki. Schools and children from the neighborhoods receive extra attention from the municipality.
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Now that Mbarki has experienced swimming in open water for the first time, he looks forward to doing this more often in the water -rich capital. “This certainly tastes like more.”