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Education in Switzerland

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The "Zentrum" campus of the ETH Zürich.

The education system in Switzerland is very diverse, because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system to the cantons (Article 62). The Swiss constitution sets the foundations, namely that primary school is obligatory for every child and is free in public schools and that the confederation can run or support universities. Swiss people have voted on May 21 2006 to reform the education system in one common program for all the cantons. Because of its diversity, there are many private international schools in Switzerland that encourage respect for all cultures.

The minimum age for primary school is about six years in all cantons but Obwalden, where it is five years and three months. Any boy or girl can take part in school if they choose to, but kids are separated depending on whether they speak French, German or Italian. Primary school continues until grade four or five, depending on the school.

At the end of primary school (or at the beginning of secondary school), pupils are separated according to their capacities in several (often three) sections. The best students are taught advanced classes to be prepared for further studies and the matura, while students who assimilate a little bit more slowly receive an education more adapted to their needs. In PISA science literacy assessment, 15-year-old students in Switzerland had the 16th highest average score of 57 countries.[1]

The first university in Switzerland was founded in 1460 in Basel, with a faculty of medicine. This place has a long tradition of chemical and medical research in Switzerland. In total, there are 12 Universities in Switzerland; ten of them are managed by the cantons, while two federal institutes of technology, ETHZ in Zürich and EPFL in Lausanne, are under the responsibility of the federal state. In addition, there are various Universities of Applied Sciences which do not require a matura degree to study. Switzerland has the second highest rate of foreign students in tertiary education, after Australia.[2]

Many Nobel prizes were awarded to Swiss scientists. More recently Vladimir Prelog, Heinrich Rohrer, Richard Ernst, Edmond Fischer, Rolf Zinkernagel and Kurt Wüthrich received nobel prizes in the sciences. In total, 113 Nobel Prize winners stand in relation to Switzerland[3] and the Nobel Peace Price was awarded 9 times to organizations residing in Switzerland.[4] Geneva hosts the world's largest particle physics laboratory, the CERN. An other important research center is the Paul Scherrer Institute which belongs to the ETH domain.

Primary

The obligatory school system usually includes primary education (Primarschule in German, école primaire in French and scuola primaria / elementare in Italian) and secondary education I (Sekundarstufe I in German, secondaire I in French and scuola secondaria / media in Italian). Before that, children usually go to kindergarten, but it is not required. The minimum age for primary school is about six years in all cantons but Obwalden, where it is five years and three months. The cantons Thurgau and Nidwalden allow five year olds to start primary school in exceptional cases. Primary school continues until grade four, five or six, depending on the school. Any boy or girl can take part in school if they choose to, but kids are separated depending on whether they speak French, German or Italian.

Secondary

"In some cantons", at the end of primary school (or at the beginning of secondary school), pupils are separated according to their capacities in several (often three) sections. The best students are taught advanced classes to be prepared for further studies and the matura, while students who assimilate a little bit more slowly receive an education more adapted to their needs. This separation can be summarized as follows:

  • Pre-gymnasium: this division aims to prepare the students for Gymnasium (German) / gymnase/collège/lycée (French) / liceo (italian) or other schools which deliver a Federal maturity diploma. Students often have the choice between a science stream (with many hours of mathematics, and an introduction to physics and chemistry) and a more literary stream with Latin (and sometimes Greek).
  • Intermediate: this division targets intermediate students whose goal it is to go to technical or secretarial schools, for example.
  • Pre-professional: This division regroups students who are more interested in manual jobs, and prepares them for an apprenticeship by giving them strong bases in spelling, reading and mathematics.

The purpose of this system is to give every student an education that fits his or her needs and interests, but it is also criticized because it segregates children based on intellectual capacity. Secondary I school continues until grade nine, which marks the end of compulsory school.

"Other cantons" have only one kind of secondary school, which may once again be divided in two sections, according to intellectual capacity as evaluated by primary school teachers.

It has to be noted that in order to partake in any tertiary education, primarily universities, children have to obtain a Matura first, which is handed out after a four-year gymnasium, which can entered either after attending Pre-Gymnasium, as noted above, or the more advanced section of secondary school, if pre-gymnasium is not offered.

Tertiary

Tertiary education depends on the education chosen in secondary education. For students with a matura, university is the most common one. Apprentices who did a vocational high school will often add a Fachhochschule or a Höhere Fachschule to their curriculum. Switzerland has the second highest rate of foreign students in tertiary education, after Australia.[2]

There are 14 Universities in Switzerland, 10 of which are maintained at cantonal level and usually offer a range of non-technical subjects. Most prominent of these, internationally, are the Universität Zürich and the Universität St. Gallen. Of the remaining 4 institutions, 2 are run by the Swiss Confederation and are known as "Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology". Of these the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ) is renowned as a world leader in Science and Technology education and research. The other 2 non-cantonal universities are run privately but accredited by Cantones. [citation needed]

Cantonal Universities:

Federal Universities:

In 2008, the ETH Zurich was ranked 15th in the field Natural Sciences and Mathematics by the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities[5] and the EPFL in Lausanne was ranked 18th in the field Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences by the same ranking.

Academic Institutions (according to the Rector's Conference of Swiss Universities [1] and to art. 3 and 12 of the Swiss Federal Law on University Funding –LAU [2] )

Private Institutions:

See also

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Switzerland/Education".

References

  1. ^ Range of rank on the PISA 2006 science scale
  2. ^ a b Education at Glance 2005 by OECD: Percentage of foreign students in tertiary education.
  3. ^ Nobel prizes in non-science categories included.
  4. ^ "Mueller Science - Spezialitaeten: Schweizer Nobelpreisträger". Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  5. ^ Shanghai Ranking 2008 Top 100 world universities in Natural Sciences and Mathematics
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