A chance for Mohamed

Essay, treatise, discussion - these are text forms that ninth-graders should know if they want to attend secondary school. On this Wednesday afternoon, these terms are written on the blackboard at Unterstrass secondary school in Zurich. Karolina Zegar's gaze wanders back and forth between the blackboard and her pupils. «What other words are unfamiliar to you?» the teacher asks the class. Mohamed Axmed Macow looks at his paper, stands up, goes to the blackboard and writes «meta level». Mohamed is a good pupil, a very good one in fact. Only German gives him problems. The fact that the 16-year-old has to come to class on Wednesday afternoons while all his other colleagues have the day off doesn't bother him. On the contrary. Mohamed is happy to be one of 26 participants in the ChagALL migration project.

«It has been proven that young migrants who come from modest financial backgrounds have little chance of gaining a higher education qualification,» says Jürg Schoch, headmaster of the Unterstrass grammar school. Regardless of how talented they are. For this reason, the ChagALL programme, equal opportunities through work on learning careers, was launched in 2008. Since then, 137 talented young migrants have been coached and trained alongside their regular lessons. The aim is to prepare them for the entrance exam to a grammar school, vocational secondary school or specialised secondary school. The programme is run by the Verein für das Evangelische Lehrerseminar Zürich (Association for the Protestant Teachers' Seminary Zurich) - as is the case for the Gymnasium Unterstrass - and is funded by two foundations.

The hurdle is high for young migrants

Mohamed is a tall, lanky boy, his short curls are black and his complexion is dark. His family comes from Somalia, his neighbour's from Afghanistan. Montenegro, Portugal, Morocco, Romania: The programme participants come from all over the world. What they have in common is a high level of intellectual potential and a home where neither their mother nor father was born speaking German - and who only have modest financial means. The latter must be proven by a tax statement. «We always receive applications from foreign parents who are anything but needy,» says Stefan Marcec, teacher at Unterstrass secondary school and operational manager of the programme. He emphasises how high the hurdles are to be accepted into the programme.

«We advise parents to give their children the freedom to learn»

Stefan Marec, teacher at Unterstrass grammar school

Every April, Stefan Marcec contacts secondary schools in the Zurich, Winterthur and Dietikon area. Teachers who are convinced of the potential of one or more of their eighth-graders can recommend them by letter of recommendation. In most cases, these pupils are the first or second generation to live with us. They also have to write a letter of motivation.
What follows is a step-by-step admissions procedure, which includes a written assessment, the recording of psychological and intellectual abilities and skills and, in a further step, a detailed admissions interview. Those who are still in the running have a good chance of being selected.

Mitra was threatened with forced marriage. Then she was top of her class.

Once the students have made it onto the programme, they and their parents are informed about the course, rights and obligations of the programme at an information evening and asked to sign a training contract. Only then are the young people deemed to have been accepted onto the programme.

«We advise parents to give their children the freedom to learn,» says Stefan Marcec. This means spending less time looking after younger siblings or helping out in their parents' business and more time learning. «As a rule, these parents are very understanding and proud of their children.»
Like the mother and father of Mitra Karimi, 18 years old and a pupil at Unterstrass grammar school. When she was 12 years old, her parents fled Afghanistan with her. The girl was to be forced into marriage. Today, the family lives in Zurich, where her father works as a logistician and her mother is a housewife. Both speak only broken German.
These are poor starting conditions in the Swiss education system. And yet, Mitra was among the best in her class at secondary school. «But I would never have made the leap to grammar school on my own,» she says confidently. After being accepted onto the programme, she attended extra lessons every Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning and was taught maths, German, French and geometry. Two teachers work together in the programme, one secondary school teacher and one secondary school teacher. «I also regularly teach concentration and relaxation exercises and explain how to organise yourself and your work in the best possible way,» adds Stefan Marcec.

The young people in the ChagALL programme are highly motivated

«The programme is very demanding and requires a high level of motivation and perseverance,» emphasises Karolina Zegar. The teacher read about ChagALL in 2012 and applied. «The pupils are taught here: You have a real chance if you make an effort. Nobody gave me that back then,» recalls the Polish-born teacher. She wants to do things differently as a teacher today.

«Your job is to analyse your mistakes. That's why I always write the correct solution in the margin,» she says, looking at the questioning faces of her pupils. Almost all of them have weaknesses in German. That is normal. «Basically, motivation and willingness to perform are very high. It's just that we've had motivation problems with individual pupils for a few years now. That wasn't the case at the start of the project,» recalls Karolina Zegar. She doesn't know why this is the case. In the first few years after the project started, there were 12 to 14 participants per school year; now there are 24 to 26 participants every year.

Many parents can't even afford the school books

Valeria Casty has now made the leap to grammar school. Her father, a Spaniard, came to Switzerland when she was 13 and her mother was 28. She comes from Colombia and studied there. Her father is a telematics engineer. Both parents now speak good German. So why did Valeria come to ChagALL? «I think there were still places available in my year,» she explains. So she is not disadvantaged - or not as disadvantaged as the other participants. Nevertheless, she is certain that she needed the special support. «I was weak in German.»

«You have a real chance if you make an effort. Nobody told me that back then.»

Karolina Zegar, teacher and native of Poland

The 17-year-old remembers well what it was like to get on the bus to Unterstrass every Wednesday afternoon when all her other colleagues had the day off and could go home.
Of course, the programme tries to cushion any lows in motivation and provide support. But the rules are strict, says programme manager Stefan Marcec. Absolute punctuality is expected. And anyone who is absent more than once without a valid excuse will be reprimanded. Occasionally, students drop out early because they have found an apprenticeship, for example.
«Why do you put yourself through all this stress?» Valerie was sometimes asked by her former classmates who had started an apprenticeship after leaving school. «Today they envy me,» says the high school student. A commercial apprenticeship would have been nothing for her. «I really want to become a teacher.» As a former programme participant, does she have a special status at grammar school? «No, I don't stand out,» she says. Her parents have a similar educational background to the other parents and can help her with her studies and advise her on her career choice.
This makes her the big exception. Many parents of programme participants cannot even pay for school books, let alone offer support with homework. This is why the ChagALL+ follow-up programme is so important for students like Mitra. «For the first six months after transferring to secondary school, the pupils continue to have lessons every Saturday morning,» explains Stefan Marcec, so that they can catch up on their lessons and ask questions. And there are also remedial lessons afterwards if required. Do most of the programme participants come to him at school? «No, many are aiming to graduate from a vocational or specialised secondary school,» says the secondary school teacher.

Ultimately, around 80 per cent of ChagALL participants make the transition to their chosen school and up to 70 per cent of them achieve their desired qualification. A rate that the Unterstrass grammar school is proud of.
Mohamed hopes to be one of those who make it. After three quarters of an hour, the German lesson is over. He closes his exercise book. Now it's on to French, then maths. In the evening, when his four younger siblings are asleep or watching television, he will study. Mohamed has a big goal: to study engineering at ETH Zurich. He would be the first in his family to do so.

About the author

«The parental home is crucial»

Mr Moser, what opportunities do young migrants have at Swiss schools?

This depends on how well they can be supported by their parents. Children of academics have a good chance of progressing to higher education, regardless of their cultural background.

So it always depends on the educational background of the parents?

Among other things. Financial resources used for additional support, such as exam preparation, or knowledge of the education system can also be important.

Let's talk about migrants whose parents have no higher education and no financial means.

They often lack support from home. Their parents often have little time and usually lack knowledge of German. Language deficits can also lead to children's potential and willingness to attend secondary school being overlooked.

Do programmes such as the ChagALL migrant support programme help?

Very much so, because the young people have one goal in mind: transferring to secondary school. And two key success factors come together here: the pupils are highly motivated and the support in the programme is sufficient and effective.

ChagALL is aimed at young people with very strong cognitive skills. What needs to happen on a broader level to be able to support all migrant children?

Every well-thought-out and well-executed support measure helps and is valuable. Of course, it would also be important for all children to learn German as early as possible in addition to their native language.

So total equality of opportunity is never achievable?

In the sense that every child can maximise their potential, unfortunately not. The state cannot prescribe language support from the moment a child is born. Many parents also find it difficult to send their child to a support programme when it is still so young. This does not necessarily have anything to do with nationality.

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