English booms in Swiss bilingual school streams

The trend is moving towards French-English or German-English bilingual streams. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

Bilingual education, especially at the upper secondary level, is widespread in Switzerland, a report has summarised. However, experts reckon the growing popularity of English could represent a threat to the national languages.

The 373 bilingual programmes currently available throughout the country are a testament to the innovative approach of the Swiss education system when it comes to language learning, according to the study led by the University of Geneva, published on Thursday.

Four-fifths of the programmes registered in 2022 were at the upper secondary school level, the rest at the earlier mandatory schooling level – where there is “big potential for development”, the study said.

Bilingual streams are most common in regions of the country which are already multilingual: correspondingly, in Bern, Fribourg, Valais and Graubünden, the second of the two languages on offer is usually another of the four Swiss national tongues (German, French, Italian or Romansh).

However, the most common second language in overall terms – and the one mostly seen in monolingual cantons – is English, which is seen as easier to learn and more useful.

The study authors say this represents a possible “danger of an anglicisation of the Swiss education system”, something which could lead to a loss of significance for the national languages. The study says politicians have a responsibility to come up with “sensible” strategies to slow down this development.