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Why teachers in Swiss schools are worried about falling education standards

Switzerland is seeing a drop in standards at its state schools, especially in German-speaking regions of the country, teacher's associations warn and it's all to do with staff, or the lack of them.

Published: 10 August 2022 11:19 CEST
Pictured is a boy in a classroom.
Teachers warn that education standards could worsen in Switzerland. Photo by Taylor Wilcox on Unsplash

Switzerland’s teachers’ association has warned of worsening school education standards because of a lack of certified staff.

Association president Dagmar Rösler told a news conference that an increasing number of primary schools have had to bring in supply staff who are not qualified to be a teacher. “The quality of our education is in danger”, she said.

“The new school year starts with a further worsening of the shortage of qualified staff. This is hardly surprising and the schools are paying for what the politicians have failed to do for too long”, Rösler said.

READ ALSO: Geneva’s private universities charge high fees for unrecognised diplomas, probe reveals

She added there is a need to train new teachers, reduce overtime work, and provide new teachers with financial support. In addition, Switzerland needs to “make the profession more attractive”, according to the educator.

Where is the situation worse?

Rösler said the situation was worse in the German-speaking cantons in Switzerland and that schools were having trouble recruiting teachers to fill vacant positions ahead of the new term.

In Bern, for example, there were still 500 positions vacant in May 2022. The situation, which was already bad, was worsened by the Ukraine refugee crisis. As schools resorted to “emergency solutions”, they ended up hiring insufficiently qualified stern.

Rösler said: “In the canton of Bern, about 1,500 out of 15,000 teachers are insufficiently qualified. Moreover, two-thirds of the professionals working in education settings in the canton of Aargau do not have appropriate qualifications”.

READ ALSO: How different is raising kids in Switzerland compared to the United States?

“Teaching is a demanding and complex task that requires basic training. Where this is lacking; the remaining experienced teachers have to provide support”.

“What is meant to be a relief turns into the opposite”, she said.

Rösler warned that the knock-on effect could see parents opt to place their children in private schools or homeschool.

What needs to be done?

David Rey, president of the teachers’ workers’ union SER, said that the emergency measures taken must become the norm and that recruited persons who are inadequately trained “must not be offered permanent employment”.

He added that “false solutions” such as having more kids in the same class just place an additional burden on the teachers.

READ ALSO: Zurich mandates organic food for hospitals, schools and cafeterias

For the professionals, the cantons need to recruit and hire more qualified people. They also ask governments to support the career start with a reduced workload to avoid “burnout” among young teachers.

“We must ensure that people stay in the profession for the long term with attractive working conditions, salaries that meet requirements, opportunities for further trending and protections against excessive work”, Rey said.

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SCHOOLS

Can Swiss schools force you to vaccinate your children?

Most kids in Switzerland are vaccinated against common childhood illnesses. But some parents choose not to do so. Can their schools force them?

Published: 11 April 2024 13:48 CEST
Can Swiss schools force you to vaccinate your children?

The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) recommends that infants and children be vaccinated, in the very least, against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, polio, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, chickenpox, pneumococcal diseases, as well as the so-called Hib vaccine which kills bacteria that can cause a severe infection occurring mostly in infants and children under five.

These are the same vaccines as the ones administered to children across the European Union.

However, unlike many other countries around the world, including neighbours Germany, France and Italy, where these childhood vaccines are either mandatory in general or mandatory for school entry, in Switzerland they are merely recommended rather than compulsory.

As a result, though most children in Switzerland are immunised according to official guidelines, some are vaccinated only against some diseases, while others not at all.

A study found that full vaccination coverage in the country remained below 90 percent. 

Particularly children living in rural and German-speaking areas are “more likely to be entirely unvaccinated,” the study revealed.

This means that more than 10 percent of children in Switzerland don’t have immunity against common childhood illnesses — a higher proportion than elsewhere in Europe.

Why is this?

As it became clear during the Covid pandemic, vaccinations — whether against coronavirus or other diseases — are not obligatory in Switzerland.

That is because the country’s constitution grants everyone a right to “self-determination,” including in matters of health.

“Everyone can decide for themselves”, according to FOPH.

When it comes to children, however, it is the parents who decide.

Can schools force parents?

Since unvaccinated children are not only at a higher risk of illness themselves, but also can expose others to it, can a school force vaccinations?

In this regard, there is a difference between public and private schools.

Since the law doesn’t  require children (or anyone else, for that matter) to get any shots, publically-funded institutions, including schools, cannot impose or enact this.

By the same token, they can’t refuse an unvaccinated child access to the classroom.

Private schools, on the other hand,  have more leeway in this matter.

As they don’t depend on taxpayers’ money, they have the right to ask parents to vaccinate their child, and deny admission to those who don’t comply.

In one such example, in 2019, a network of private nursery schools called Kita ruled that all children attending their facilities must be vaccinated against at least measles and whooping cough. If parents refuse, the children are denied attendance.

READ ALSO: Could you be forced to vaccinate your children in Switzerland?

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