hi guys, I was just wondering what's the education system in Switzerland and how it has changed over time? I've heard that, in the past, less than 1 of 3 students in Switzerland had elementary school finished. Most of them were self taught. Now I hear that also Switzerland accepted the European system of education. Is there some older Swiss citizen who can explain me this?

Regards

A quick search in Google for Switzerland showed: http://www.basel.ch/en/education/public-sector_schools

You might like to spend some time researching the various school systems in the different Cantons - depending on where you'll be. AFAIK the quality of education (public and private) available in CH is at least comparable to our neighbours'.

I've heard that Switzerland has one of the best educational systems in the world, so German and French ones should be 2 classes lower than the one in your country. I was interested about the subjects, are they all compulsory or optional. I found those pages, but I was a little more curious to hear personal experience from a native Swiss citizen

See the comparative national rankings at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program...ent_Assessment

"The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a triennial world-wide test of 15-year-old schoolchildren's scholastic performance ..."

Switzerland ranks 6th in maths. Otherwise mostly average scores.

Hello!!! I thinking about going moving to basel because my dad use to work there and love it and my ex boyfriend out and he want me to move in with him because ig ot in to college but i think i am too young to move out there on my own i am on 16 #!!! what do u think ? xxxxx thanks stacey

Hi Stacey and welcome. I'm not sure if I understood you correctly: your ex wants you to come to Switzerland and move in with him? What for? If I were you, I'd finish school in England first - you can always visit him over the weekend or during the holidays (or he could even take the trouble to visit YOU!). Living alone in a foreign country with little or no knowledge of the language and without your parents, starting a new school and school system all on your own - that's a lot to take on for someone who's 16. I'd wait a while and finish your education where you are now.
Good luck!

Stacey: what do you want to do in basel? would you want to continue school in the swiss school system, or start work/ find an internship or apprenticeship? Where do you live now? Sorry to bombard you with questions, just trying to get a bit of a picture...

Basel is a great place, I moved here three years ago from glasgow (scotland rather than us) with my family and I've settled really well, but it really depends what you want to do. Also: how good is your german? Though you'll get by with english in the short term, if you want to find work you will find it much easier if you speak german competently.

just read what möpp said and i think it's a fair point, moving to a foreign country at 16 is a big step....I'm 16 and I don't think I could. Maybe you could come to switzerland for uni when you've finished college...

listen...I'm not moving to Switzerland just wanted to ask because recently I read about about educational systems around the world and I read that the reason why Switzerland has one of the most powerful economies in the world is because of it's educational system. And I was curious to find out more about it. I thought that this would be the right forum to ask.

Take a look at the link in Post No. 2 and check out the forum's "search" function (schools, schooling etc. tags). You'll probably find quite a lot of info to start your research on the Swiss school system.

@darenet: sorry - the replies concerning "moving to Switzerland" were directed at Stacey

hi darenet
this is not a swiss person's answer but i'm also reading on the topic as my son just started kindergarten and i get so confused when people speak about all the different schools available...and the course through the school system seems a bit convoluted, i attended, primary school and then high school and then went to university, here it the same journey has many names?!?
according to this article http://www.ag.ch/aargauservices/shar...are_e_(3b).pdf
9 years of school is 'obligatory' so to answer your question, government requires children to go to school until about 16.
i hope that makes sense and at least partly answers your question? each kanton (and there are something like 27 of them) has their own system and no cantonal or federal exams are written, so the 'level' in a class is determined by the teacher...
sd
ps. good explanation of zurich canton and also your elementary school question is answered - you're right! http://www.about.ch/education/index.html

And that's why most of the managing jobs are filled with foreigners.
Only about 10%-15% of the Swiss kids go to the gymnasium and then go to university.
The other 85-90% go work and learn at the same time. Some of them will go the Berufsmatura, which compares with Bachelor.
As said in the Pisa studies, Switzerland is in the middle, for excellent education we should al go to Scandinavia

I don't have the actual numbers at hand but I assume that they aren't correct anymore.

I could as well state that the Swiss youth is over-educated because the country needs unlearned workers from the EU.

My swiss neighbours complain about the amount of Germans who work here as docters, proffessors etc. That all the good jobs are taken by us foreigners.
Also when you look around, a lot of the handymen are of swiss origin, the painters, carpenters and other maintenance men. This is because of the schoolsystem, after only three years of sec.school, kids start to learn a job and earn some money. So they start at a age of 15, 16. When you compare that to other countries that is fairly young.

My infos may be a wee bit out-of-date, some rulings having been changed recently, but I can't leave this post unanswered.
What do you mean by handymen? My dictionary gives 'Hilfskraft' which is not what the Swiss would call themselves when doing a four year apprenticeship. Nor would they call it 'learn a job and earn some money'. The 'rate of pay' for a first year apprentice is nowhere near enough to live on.
Firstly, a school-leaver must find a firm which will take him on as apprentice. This often means working for various firms, writing many job applications and attending interviews. Having acquired this place, the more academically minded apprentices may be able to study for the Berufsmatura parallel to their work in the firm, enabling them to go to the Fachhochschule (technology, social and natural sciences and art) afterwards. Until the last couple of years, when the Matura (and often a University Education) became the requirement for professions where previously aptitude was considered more important, a good final examination after four years apprenticeship and a good employer's reference was the gateway to a worthwhile and life-long career in a trade and carried with it the respect it deserved.