Two Swiss cantons are considering changing the school calendar to prevent students from returning to classes during a heatwave. They want to get school districts across Switzerland to do the same.
Public schools in both Basel-City and Basel-Country will begin the new year on August 11th this year.
Basel-City authorities are planning to contact their counterparts in the ‘sister’ canton of Basel-Country, as well as other Swiss cantons “to explore whether the holidays can be distributed differently throughout the school year,” said Sandra Eichenberg, head of communications for the Basel-City Department of Public Education.
‘Effective learning’
Not everyone is on board, however.
For his part, Philipp Loretz, president of the Basel-Country Teachers’ Association, is more skeptical about this idea.
In his view, changing the holiday schedule makes no sense.
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“This is not a necessary measure,” he said. Instead, he prefers solutions inside school buildings that would make them cooler for pupils during heatwaves.
“We need both short- and long-term measures to combat the heat,” he said, without specifying whether he is referring to air conditioning or other cooling systems. “If nothing is done, we will find ourselves in situations in the summer where effective learning will no longer be possible.”
