Message from the Head of School - November 2022

Dear Champiteans,

The Swiss Government is asking the cantons to align themselves with a 4-year high school program (gymnase). 

Our new Vaud Minister of Education, F. Borloz, is wise and will not fight this directive without a chance of succeeding and will therefore have to find a way between several costly options: either 11+4 (11 years of compulsory schooling + 4 years of high school, which pushes the Matu exam to 19 years of age), or 10+4 (the Matu is still possible at 18 years of age), or another hybrid formula to be invented. We know the teachers' unions opinion (11+4), that of the politicians responsible for the state budget (10+4), but we do not know the opinion of the students and their families.

Who wants a longer high school program, and why? We know that the universities and their outstanding professors are tired of seeing an average of 50% of the first year students fail. In my opinion, this is largely a matter of misdirected educational guidance: too many students choose a faculty through family tradition, social image or unrealistic dreams. A stronger educational orientation would make it possible to limit the failure rate. By solid, I refer to admission on the basis of grades in certain subjects and according to the choice of options: should a Latinist who is weak in Maths be allowed to go to the EPFL? A more effective student counselling is also about knowing oneself better and choosing a life path that is more in line with one's own personality and talents.

I also believe that it is wiser not to prolong secondary studies, which comprise a large number of subject matters. It is not the extra content in Latin, History, French or German that will increase a student's chances in the first year at EPFL. It would be much better, from this point of view, to strengthen the tertiary and specialised study phase, for example by adding a year of 'prep' before university, either as an option or depending on the results of the Matu exam. Rather than having an additional “generalist” year, which includes subjects that will later be abandoned forever, the student would take a specialised prep year in his/her chosen academic field.

And finally, the modern era tends to lengthen the learning phase of mankind indefinitely. A Matu at 19 or 20 years old, followed by military service for boys, sometimes a language course abroad, internships in companies, then a Bachelor's degree over 3 or 4 years, and a now essential Master's degree: young people will enter the job market at approximately 30 years of age. They will therefore have children later, thus contributing to the ageing of the population, and less to social security. Despite the good intentions behind this extension of the secondary schooling period, it is a socially risky one. This extension also contains the potential for a two-tier society, due to the large gap (up to 10 years) between those who start vocational training at the age of 15 with an apprenticeship and those who extend their secondary and university studies indefinitely. I vote for Matu at 18 years of age.