On 3 December 2019, the OECD published the 2018 PISA scores for 79 countries. In Switzerland, around 6,000 school pupils born in 2002 from more than 200 school across Switzerland took the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test. PISA, run every three years, assesses the extent to which 15-year-old students, near the end of […]
How to learn a language as easily as a child
Brought to you by Swiss French School. Babies and toddlers have several advantages over adults when it comes to language learning. American linguist and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky believes humans have an innate linguistic capacity that is biologically preset in the human brain. He calls this a Language Acquisition Device (LAD). We were all born with […]
Swiss children reach only 77% of their potential, according to World Bank
Yesterday, the World Bank released its Human Capital Index (HCI), a measure of how much human potential nations realise. Singapore takes the top spot. A child born there can expect to realize 88% of their potential. Switzerland comes 20th with 77%, just ahead of New Zealand. Among european nations, Switzerland is 14th, behind Italy (13th), […]
A website to evaluate teachers gets Swiss pupils suspended
Le Matin. Three school pupils have been suspended after creating a website to evaluate their teachers. Nathan Ganser and two friends at a gymnase in Morge were surprised when their blog, set up to evaluate teachers, got them into trouble. “Teachers evaluate students. This project was a way of doing the same thing” he explained. […]
English bridges Switzerland’s language-divide to a surprising extent
A recent survey by Pro Linguis demonstrates the importance of English in Switzerland. The notional line, known as the röstigraben, that marks the border between French and German speaking Swiss does not confine Switzerland’s English speakers. To test each language group’s mastery of the world’s lingua franca, they selected difficult to translate words, like the […]
Switzerland leads world in innovation ranking. Here’s why.
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) published a study late last week which ranked countries on innovation. The top five in the 2015 ranking are Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States. Switzerland has now held top place for five years in a row. The study, undertaken by WIPO, the INSEAD […]
Meet well-known authors at Morges Literary Festival 4-6 September, 2015
Rapidly becoming one of Europe’s most renowned French-English language book festivals, the Swiss lakeside town of Morges will host its 6th annual event, or Le Livre sur les Quais, at the end of this week featuring some 300 writers from all over the world. Held in tents along the waterfront overlooking Lake Geneva and the […]
Solar impulse starts longest most dangerous leg
On the morning of May 31, 2015 Swiss Pilot André Borschberg took off in the single-seater solar powered aircraft from Nanjing, China bound for island state of Hawaii in the United States. This is the longest leg of Solar Impulse’s around the world journey. Reaching Hawaii will take six days and five nights (around 130 […]
French-speaking Swiss, Nidwalden loves you!
Voters in Nidwalden last Sunday rejected a UDC Nidwalden sponsored initiative that would have resulted in French being dropped from the canton’s primary school curriculum. 61.7% voted “No”. The parliament of Nidwalden rejected the initiative ahead of the vote on the grounds it would negatively impact national cohesion and advised voters to vote against the […]
No one is stealing my bike
Could this be the solution to Switzerland’s bike theft problem? It would be a lot more effective than the Dutch track and trace deterrent. However it does look expensive. Post by Jrock Radio. For more stories like this on Switzerland follow us on Facebook
