From 2026, children of cross-border commuters from France will no longer be taught in Swiss schools – namely in Geneva – as has been the case until now.
On August 12th, Geneva authorities announced that starting with the 2026 school year, children from the French region called the ‘Pôle métropolitain du Genevois français’ (Greater Geneva) – which encompasses 120 French communes adjacent to the Swiss border – will no longer be allowed to attend the schools in the Swiss city or canton.
This decision has been long in coming, with Geneva taking the first steps in that direction in 2018; it has however, gone nowhere.
An important factor was the fact that the measure was supposed to go into effect in the summer of 2020, but the Covid pandemic, and subsequent school closings, prevented the new rule from being implemented.
This was then, but what about now?
Geneva authorities considered this delay to be a temporary retrieve.
There are several reasons for that – one financial and the other statuary and pragmatic.
The first is that children living in France attending schools in Geneva bring additional costs to city authorities. Banning them will save the state around 28 million francs a year.
Secondly, in principle children are supposed to go to school in the canton and municipality where they live (and where their parents pay taxes), but an exception has been made for years for students from neighbouring France.
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‘Brutal measure’
The decision is, as might be expected, sparking opposition on the French side of the border.
Christian Dupessey, president of the ‘Pôle métropolitain’ and the mayor of neighbouring Annemasse, went as far as calling the new rule “a brutal measure”.
“This decision has serious consequences for families and the French authorities,” he said.
“Geneva doesn’t create enough housing to house those who work there, so they will end up living in neighbouring France. They will be trained with French money, and then end up working in Geneva using the skills they’ve acquired. This isn’t regionally balanced.”
The new measure is expected to impact about 1,000 students.
The rule is taking on not only a political but also a legal dimension: 38 French families whose children attend Geneva schools said they will file two appeals against this measure before the Constitutional Chamber of the Court of Justice.
Among the reasons for the appeal cited by the litigants is that the exclusion of cross-border students is a violation of the free movement agreement between Switzerland and the EU.
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But there is a twist…
About 85 percent (850) of school students affected by the new rule are Swiss citizens – that is, children whose Swiss parents chose to work in Switzerland but live in France due to the lower living costs.
One Swiss mother told public broadcaster RTS that the decision has significant consequences on her children and family as a whole.
Sending her children to a French school will entail “putting them in schools with an educational system that they don’t know and neither do I,” she said.
Or, she has the option of moving back to Geneva in order to keep her children in a school there. “That would mean having to pay more for housing,” she said.
However, this argument is dismissed by Anne Hiltpold, who is in charge of public education in Geneva.
“You can’t have it all: you can’t live in France to have cheaper housing, and have part of your life on one side of the border and the rest on the other,” she said.
“You go to school where you live.”
