As Swissinfo.ch notes, education and culture issues in Switzerland fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the cantons, the federal subjects, so education systems in different cantons can differ significantly from each other, including in the area of language learning formats. Until recently, various cantons prescribed their schools to study not only one of the national languages as a second language, but also English.
Now Swiss Interior Minister Alain Berset has addressed an ultimatum to the cantons: in all cantons, the second language must be one of the national languages, that is, roughly speaking, in a German-speaking canton, the second language in schools should be French or Italian, and in French-speaking cantons – German or Italian. In any case, the minister warns, the cantons must themselves, as quickly as possible, develop a unified format for language learning in schools with a bias toward supporting Switzerland's linguistic national unity. Otherwise, the federal center will prescribe this to the cantons by passing a relevant law – for which it has full authority.
Recently, Alain Berset presented three different versions of such a law with varying degrees of strictness at a special press conference in Bern, asking the cantons to express their opinions on them by October 2016. The minister confirmed that Switzerland operates a system of federalism based on the principle of presumption of cantonal competence, and that Bern would gladly forgo the need to dictate anything to the federal subjects.
"Currently, there is a strategy, though not adopted by all cantons, that provides for the study of the first foreign language from the third grade and the second foreign language from the fifth grade. One of these languages must be a national language (Landessprache) of Switzerland. The federal center will not intervene if all cantons implement such a solution."
However, some cantons, namely Aargau, Appenzell Innerrhoden, and Uri, have not yet implemented this format, and in the canton of Thurgau, a bill is currently being prepared that would postpone the start of French language study to almost high school level. In four other cantons, including the canton of Zurich, popular legislative initiatives are being prepared for a vote, which require leaving only one foreign language at the primary school level (approximately grades 1-5).
In the cantons affected by the language issue, the 'ultimatum' from the Swiss minister of culture has mostly provoked a negative reaction. They fear that the adoption of a 'language law' by the federal center could trigger a referendum. Recall that in Switzerland, with its direct democracy, any laws, even those passed by parliament or the government, can be subjected to a national plebiscite and rejected.
The cantons fear that holding a vote on the language issue could introduce an unnecessary degree of hype into such a delicate and complex problem, turning the language issue into an object of political speculation, which could extremely negatively affect the linguistic peace for which Switzerland is famous worldwide. In the press, however, Alain Berset's position is assessed rather positively.
"The strategy that provides for learning the first foreign language from the 3rd grade and the second foreign language from the 5th grade, with one of these languages being a national language, was adopted back in 2004. Since then, the cantons have not been able to reach a common opinion on the format of language learning in schools, and this is completely counterproductive," writes, in particular, the Bern-based newspaper Der Bund.
"First, when changing their place of residence, students sometimes face the need to completely change their curriculum, and second, when there is no agreement among the cantons, national unity is threatened. The presence of four national languages in the country has long become Switzerland's showcase, a basic element of Swiss national identity.
The linguistic peace prevailing in the country is proudly recounted to foreign guests. However, in reality, this linguistic peace is not a given, because, as a rule, language is more a dividing than a unifying factor. And history provides many examples of this.
And if in Switzerland linguistic diversity has become not a source of interregional enmity, as in Belgium, but a substrate on which national unity grows, then thanks for this must go to the rational approach of the regions themselves, that is, the cantons. And in this sense, the federal center not only can but is obliged to intervene, especially if it sees that what is at stake is the main thing, namely, the principle of unity in diversity on which modern Switzerland is built," concludes the newspaper Der Bund.
In Switzerland, a distinction is made between "national languages" (Landessprache) and "official languages" (Amtssprache). In the first case, the emphasis is on language as a cultural and folkloric factor, so the "national languages" include German, French, Italian, and Romansh. In the second case, the semantic emphasis is on languages as tools for clerical work and bureaucracy. Therefore, only German, French, and Italian are considered official languages. Debates in the federal parliament are conducted in these languages, and all federal legislation, for example, is translated only from and into these languages.
Romansh may be used as an official language, but on a limited scale – only there and in cases where communication is with people for whom this language is native. In other words, Romansh is an "official language" of regional significance. The concept of a "state language," contrary to common misconception, does not exist in Switzerland.