Zurich and Vaud expand French exchange programme

Swiss cantons Zurich and Vaud are expanding a programme that gives pupils and teachers opportunities to practise French across the language divide, SRF reported. More than 16,000 young people from each canton have taken part in exchanges over the past five years.

The programme includes short and longer stays, bilingual school camps and online “E-Tandems”, in which pupils meet by video conference and take turns learning and teaching. Teachers also travel between the cantons to teach French.

The education directors, Silvia Steiner of Zurich and Frédéric Borloz of Vaud, said they would make short school exchanges easier to organise. A planned platform will let teachers register interest and find a class in the other canton. Primary pupils are also to be encouraged to start pen-pal exchanges from their first French lessons.

The expansion comes as French teaching in primary schools faces political pressure in German-speaking Switzerland. A majority of the Zurich Cantonal Council wants to end primary-school French lessons. Steiner said the council had also asked her to expand language exchanges, and that she would present a proposal on the future of primary French teaching in Zurich in the first quarter of next year.

Steiner said learning outcomes should be measured and improvements made if they are inadequate. Borloz said exchanges were about more than language learning: they also gave people a chance to meet residents from another part of the country.