In Topansko Pole in the municipality of Chair, a sports swimming pool worth around 1 million euros was opened, built with support from the Ministry of Sport and the Government. It is the first modern indoor pool in this densely populated Skopje district - and what's more interesting than the ribbon and the opening-day photos is what comes after them.

Starting next school year, around 1,800 fifth and sixth graders will have swimming as part of their mandatory curriculum. This is not a simple class. It is a change that could affect a whole generation of kids who until now, either for economic reasons or because of unavailable infrastructure, never learned to swim.

Swimming in Macedonia has always been a class marker. Families who could afford summer trips to the sea or private pools - their kids swam. Kids from poorer districts neither knew how to swim, nor had the chance to learn. That's a real inequality in a country trying to become an EU member.

Now Chair is introducing swimming as a basic skill for everyone. It matters for three reasons. First - safety. A large share of Macedonian children can't swim properly. That means a higher drowning risk both when they go to the Adriatic and when they go to a domestic lake. Second - coordination and discipline. Swimming is one of the most complex motor skills, with benefits to overall physical fitness. Third - social equality. All kids, regardless of their parents' budget, will start from the same place.

The test will be in sustainability. Many projects in Skopje and across Macedonia open with ribbons but aren't maintained. Will the pool still be functional in two, three, five years? Will there be qualified instructors? Will the water's chemical balance be certified? Will repairs be done on time? If the answer is „yes" to all of those questions, then this is a model that can move to other neighborhoods - not just Chair, but Aerodrom, Kisela Voda, Gazi Baba too.

And if in two years the pool becomes a symbol of what doesn't work in Macedonian public investment - non-working days, facilities shut for indefinite repairs - then it will just be another „nice photo from opening day." Which version comes true will depend on the investment in maintenance, not in construction.