Zurich wants to abolish French lessons in its elementary schools; Basel community to impose fines on ‘drive-thru’ motorists; and more Swiss news in our roundup on Tuesday.
Zurich wants to abolish French lessons in its elementary schools
Right now, French is taught in the canton’s elementary schools as a second lenaguage, the same way as German is in French-speaking cantons.
On Monday, however, the cantonal parliament passed a motion submitted by various parties seeking to remove French from the obligatory curriculum for younger children.
MPs asked the Zurich government to create the necessary legal basis until 2027, so that French can only be taught from upper secondary school onwards.
That’s because, according to the move’s supporters, learning French later would “improve learning outcomes, promote motivation and avoid excessive demands.”
This is not a new trend: out of 19 German-speaking cantons, only 12 currently teach French as a second language in primary schools; in fact, more are thinking of abandoning it in favour in English, though this doesn’t seem to be the reason behind Zurich’s decision.
READ ALSO: Anger as Swiss German schools drop French lessons in favour of English
Basel community to slap ‘drive-thru’ motorists with 100-franc fines
Since Monday, an automatic control system has been put into operation in Birsfelden.
It detects vehicles that drive through the neighbourhood streets for a short time in order to avoid the traffic jam on the highway.
The system, with cameras installed at the community’s entrance and exit, will record license plates of drivers who leave the area within 15 minutes of arriving – a sign that they merely want to bypass the bottlenecks on the motorway and create congestion in Birsfelden instead,
If a vehicle remains in Birsfelden for at least 15 minutes, the recording is automatically deleted, but if it leaves sooner, the case is passed on to the police.
Other municipalities are reportedly also interested in implementing the same system.
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Geneva restaurants will be required to offer at least one local wine
In a move intended to support Geneva winemakers, MPs passed an ordinance requiring every Geneva establishment to include at least one wine produced in the canton on its menu.
To encourage restaurant and bar owners to adopt this move, they will be able to claim back 200 francs for every 1,000 francs spent on beverages (both alcoholic and not) produced in Geneva.
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Travel advisory:
Later this week, beware of train strike in Italy
There will be a nationwide rail strike at the state-owned company Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) on Thursday, September 4th, from 9 pm to Friday, September 5th, at 6 pm.
This means that cross-border connections to and from Switzerland – for example, to or via Milan – could also be severely restricted.
The complete list of guaranteed connections is available on the Trenitalia website.
If you have any questions about life in Switzerland, ideas for articles or news tips for The Local, please get in touch with us at news@thelocal.ch
