Recently, the Council of States, Switzerland’s upper house, voted 26 to 16 in favour of two weeks of paternity leave following the birth of a child, according to 20 Minutes. At the same time, the Council of States rejected the idea of four weeks of paternity leave by 29 to 14. Paternity leave has become […]
Swiss universities rise further in global ranking
A recent ranking placed two Swiss universities in the top 20. ETH Zurich (ETHZ), the Swiss university for science and technology based in Zurich rose from 7th to 6th place this year in the overall global ranking by QS. Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), ETHZ’s sister in French-speaking Switzerland near Lausanne, scooped 18th place, […]
Switzerland 5th most skeptical of vaccine safety
A recently published survey by the Wellcome Trust, which surveyed people around the world on their vaccination beliefs, found that 22% of those surveyed in Switzerland strongly or somewhat disagreed that vaccines are safe. Only France (33%), Gabon (26%), Togo (25%) and Russia (24%) had higher percentages of people strongly or somewhat disagreeing that vaccines […]
Question of the week: is this 1953 video on how to make a true man helpful?
Back in 1953 the Puerto Rico Department of Health created the Mental Health Film Board Series on the Emotions of Everyday Living. This one entitled Roots of Happiness offers advice on how a father might make a true man of his son while showing how another appears to get things wrong. While it is unlike […]
Young Swiss no longer on hook for parents’ debts
The National Council, Switzerland’s parliament, supported a motion that would end the transfer of debt from unpaid health insurance premiums to young adults, according to 20 Minutes. Under the current system, when young adults reach the age of 18 they must pay any health insurance premiums that were not paid on their behalf by their […]
Nursery group refuses unvaccinated children in Switzerland
The nursery group Bubble Bees, present in five locations in Switzerland, will now only accept children that have been vaccinated for measles and whooping cough, according the newspapers Sonntagszeitung and 20 Minutes. The CHF 2,635-a-month nursery chain has nurseries in Zurich, Lenzburg, Schaffhausen, Frauenfeld and St. Gallen. Switzerland has recently seen a sharp rise in […]
Geneva considers changing school holiday calendar
Geneva’s education authority is considering changing the canton’s school holiday calendar. The holidays under discussion are Easter, the long weekend of Ascension and the summer break. Proposed changes would extend the Easter break from one to two weeks, make the Friday following Ascension – Thursday 30 May 2019 this year – a school holiday and […]
Swiss federal government against tax funded paternity leave
Recently, Switzerland’s Federal Council voiced its opposition to an initiative to create universal paid leave for the fathers of newborns, according to the newspaper Le Matin. The initiative, which aims to introduce 20 days of paid paternity leave and which collected the required number of signatures to go ahead in 2017, has encountered further resistance in Bern. […]
Lausanne to restrict child care places to working parents
Finding day care for young children can be difficult in Switzerland. In Lausanne it has been difficult for many years. The challenge doesn’t disappear when children go to school either. In Switzerland, schools close at lunchtime and children are the responsibility of parents, a system that works when one parent works and the other stays […]
Swiss discuss banning young drivers from roads at night
Nights, particularly weekend nights, are when most accidents involving young drivers occur. Between 2013 and 2017, 2,267 young adults between 18 and 24 were seriously injured on Swiss roads and an average of 32 were killed annually, around 14% of Switzerland’s total road deaths. Because driving reflexes are less internalized among inexperienced drivers, distractions, such […]
