National Framework

Singapore's national learn-to-swim framework.

In 2025, Singapore Aquatics launched SwimSingapore presented by OCBC. It organises the country's learn-to-swim programmes into six named offerings across three pathways. SwimSafer is one of them.

What SwimSingapore is

SwimSingapore is a national framework, not a new programme. Singapore Aquatics, the national body for swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, and open water, grouped the country's existing and new learn-to-swim offerings under one roof. OCBC is the presenting partner.

The aim is to tell every Singaporean, at every age, which programme fits where they are. A parent with a one-year-old has a starting point. A primary school student has a pathway. A 50-year-old who wants to swim 1.5 kilometres in the evenings has a route too. Before SwimSingapore, these offerings existed but were not mapped together as one journey.

The three pathways

Participation

Water confidence and safety

Starters, young children, and water safety. Everyone passes through here, whether they stop at safety or continue onward.

Performance

Technique and competition

For swimmers who want cleaner strokes, faster times, and a route into pre-competitive and competitive swimming.

Recreational

Endurance and distance

For adults and older learners who want to keep swimming for health and enjoyment, without a competitive goal.

The six programmes

Each pathway contains one or more programmes. Names are stable and consistent: the word that follows "Swim" tells you what the programme is for.

  • SwimStart

    Participation

    Parent-accompanied infants and toddlers

    The earliest stage. Parents enter the pool with their child to build comfort with water, submersion, and buoyancy. Six sub-stages.

  • SwimFun

    Participation

    Independent young children, pre-school age

    Water confidence without a parent in the pool. Children learn to float, move short distances, and enter and exit the pool unassisted. Three sub-stages.

  • SwimSafer

    Participation You are here

    Primary school students and anyone learning water safety

    The water safety and survival programme. Six stages. Compulsory for MOE primary school students and available to private learners of any age. Teaches self-rescue, survival strokes, and clothed survival.

  • SwimBetter

    Performance

    Swimmers wanting cleaner technique

    Stroke proficiency and skill development. For swimmers who have completed water safety and want to refine front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. Three sub-stages.

  • SwimFaster

    Performance

    Pre-competitive and competitive swimmers

    Speed, conditioning, and competition readiness. Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards mapped to timed distances from 50 metres to 1500 metres.

  • SwimFurther

    Recreational

    Adult and older learners building endurance

    Endurance and distance swimming without a competitive lens. Distances from 200 metres to 1500 metres. For swimmers who want to keep going, not necessarily to race.

Where SwimSafer fits

SwimSafer is the water safety programme in the Participation pathway. Its role has not changed. The Ministry of Education still funds it for all primary school students, delivered in curriculum time. Private learners of any age can still take it through accredited swim schools. The Centralised Assessment Management System (CAMS) still runs the assessments, and Singapore Aquatics still issues the certificates.

What SwimSingapore adds is context. Parents asking "what's before SwimSafer?" now have an answer: SwimStart for parent-and-child starters, or SwimFun for young children learning independently. Parents asking "what's after Gold?" have SwimBetter, SwimFaster, or SwimFurther depending on the child's goals. Water safety is no longer positioned as the end of the journey.

For primary school parents

If your child is in a Singapore primary school, SwimSafer still happens automatically. Nothing you need to do has changed. The SwimSingapore framework is useful mainly if you want to plan what comes next or what to start with for a younger sibling.

A note on sub-competencies

Within several programmes, Singapore Aquatics has also consolidated older historical awards. The Singapore Swimming Proficiency Awards (SSPA) and the SAQ SwimFaster Awards both continue under the new framework. If you have a child with older SSPA certificates, they have not been invalidated. SwimSingapore is additive, not a reset.