EDK assembly: national languages at school

Alain Berset takes part in the annual assembly of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education, at the Basel Fair, at a time when several German-speaking cantons are calling into question the early teaching of French.

He takes a clear position: if harmonisation is no longer guaranteed, “wird der Bund von seiner subsidiären Kompetenz Gebrauch machen, die ihm die Verfassung gibt”. Federalism, he says, does not mean that everyone does what they like on their own territory, whatever it costs Switzerland.

Speeches on this site

• Assemblée plénière de la CDIP : l’enseignement des langues nationales (French-language page)

Sources

• Canton of Basel-Stadt, press release of October 2014