Secondary school or grammar school: which is better for my child?

For many Swiss pupils, things got serious after the summer holidays. For some, it was time to choose a career, for others it was time to move on to secondary school - or to transfer to the Gymnasium. The gymnasiale Matura is the highest qualification that young people can achieve at upper secondary level.

The Swiss grammar school is a special case, says Franz Eberle, Professor of Grammar School Education at the University of Zurich: «With 13 to 14 compulsory subjects in the basic area plus a specialisation and a supplementary subject as well as a Matura paper, Swiss grammar school pupils have the most comprehensive compulsory programme in an international comparison.»

In return, the Matura rewards them with an entry ticket to all universities in the country, giving them exam-free access to all degree programmes with the exception of medicine. «This is also exceptional by international standards.»

The media regularly report on parents who are harassing teachers until the grades are good enough for grammar school.

What also makes the Swiss Matura special is the fact that comparatively few people have one. «At 20 per cent, the Swiss baccalaureate rate is one of the lowest among OECD countries,» says Eberle.

Education as a hard-fought commodity

It is quite possible that the reputation of the grammar school as the ideal route to a school career stems from all these special features: What is rare has charisma. Obviously, the reputation of the grammar school seems to dazzle some people. With reliable regularity, the media report on parents who call in lawyers to get their child through the probationary period or pester teachers until the average grade is good enough for grammar school. A serious escalation? Perhaps.

«What is certain is that many parents no longer see education as a self-evident, public good, but as a hard-fought private good,» says educationalist Margrit Stamm.(You can find the full interview here.) «They calculate that the future of their children only lies in grammar school.»

What is the reason for this attitude? What does it do to the school and the ideal of equal opportunities, what does it do to the children? What helps children and young people to find their place, and for whom is the path to grammar school the right one? This dossier explores these questions - and aims to encourage parents to look beyond the Matura. It is sometimes forgotten that the Swiss education system has another «special case» to offer that is a role model for many countries: dual vocational education and training.

Aim of the Matura

According to the article on educational objectives in the Swiss Matura regulations, the Gymnasium has two main objectives: It should equip graduates with the «general ability to study» and «prepare them for demanding tasks in society». By general study ability, it is meant that Matura students should be able to successfully take up not just a specific degree programme, but any degree programme.

For education researcher Stefan Wolter, this means that the grammar school is a targeted preparation for university. He cites the grammar school specialisation in psychology and education as an example: «It shouldn't be the case that you simply have lively discussions about Freud. If pupils only realise that statistics is part of psychology at university, the grammar school has not fulfilled its task.»

Wolter is an adjunct professor of education economics at the University of Bern and head of the Swiss Coordination Centre for Education Research. He is the author of the third Swiss Education Report published in 2018, a comprehensive analysis of data from statistics, research and administration on the Swiss education system.

According to the education report, 95 per cent of Swiss school leavers start a degree course in the first year after graduation, 80 per cent at a university and 15 per cent at universities of applied sciences and teacher training colleges. A quarter of those who decide to study at university do not complete it - but it remains the most popular path. «In Switzerland, you do the Matura to go to university,» summarises Wolter.

Preliminary grades or test - which is fairer?

Whether «the right ones» make it into grammar school is a hotly debated question. It also concerns the admissions procedure. Ten Swiss cantons, including Zurich, Glarus and St. Gallen, regulate admission with an entrance exam. In most cases, previous grades also have an influence on whether the child gets a place. 16 cantons, including Bern, both Basel cantons, Latin Switzerland and Central Switzerland, do not organise an entrance exam. Here, a certain average grade is decisive, often combined with the teacher's recommendation.

The entrance examination is unfair as an admission criterion, a veritable sword of Damocles.

A mother

Grade point average or exam: which is fairer? Opinions differ on this question. The entrance exam is merely a snapshot, dependent on the child's form on the day and therefore not very representative of their actual potential - this argument is often put forward by parents such as a mother from Zurich who does not wish to be named. «The entrance exam is simply unfair as an admission criterion, a veritable sword of Damocles,» she says. «It's no wonder that preparation for grammar school becomes a matter for parents.»

The child's potential depends on the environment

A recent study by Urs Moser, head of the Institute for Educational Evaluation at the University of Zurich, shows what this criticism is all about. In 2009, Moser and his team investigated whether the so-called AKF test, which candidates for long-term grammar schools in Zurich took for several years in addition to the entrance exam, could improve equal opportunities when transferring to grammar school. AKF stands for general cognitive abilities, which were determined using the test.

His findings were irrelevant to the exam result itself. The study was intended to clarify whether children from migrant families who actually have the potential to go to grammar school fail the entrance exam simply because they have little support. Accordingly, the researchers expected a gap between high scores in the AKF test and low success in the entrance exam. «This expectation was not fulfilled,» says Moser. «Pupils with German as a second language performed significantly worse than those with German as their first language, both in the AKF test and in all parts of the exam.»

Intelligence is not a fixed value, but is influenced from birth.

Urs Moser, education researcher

For the researcher, the conclusion is obvious. «Intelligence is not an unchangeable variable, but is influenced from birth,» says Moser. «Whether a child can realise its innate potential depends on the environment.»

Children from educationally advantaged homes benefit from a more stimulating environment: «They have a head start, which not only has an impact on exam success, but also on their cognitive abilities.»

Parents influence teachers

The study also shows that, in general, the score from the cognitive skills usually corresponds not only with a child's exam result, but also with their previous grades. «This suggests that the test fulfils its task relatively well and makes the right selection,» says Moser.

The researcher points out that even where only preliminary grades count, the question arises as to their validity: The grades a child receives depend on the composition of the class - and on how strong the influence of the parents is on the teacher's judgement.

«While Central Switzerland has had good experiences with teacher recommendations,» says Moser, «you don't have to be a clairvoyant to see the problems that the abolition of the Gymi exam would cause for teachers in Zurich. Here, the test is an important balancing factor to the parental power play." Education researcher Wolter also argues: "If the entrance exam is removed as a hurdle, academic children in particular will benefit. They make the leap to grammar school much more often than where there are exams to pass.»

The education report also shows that academic children are represented more frequently than average among grammar school pupils with poor school performance. «They typically have to fulfil their parents' expectations, even though they don't belong at this school,» says Wolter. «That's bad for the young people - and socially unjust.»

Necessary intelligence is often lacking

It is not uncommon for young people to attend grammar school despite not having the cognitive skills to do so. This is suggested by the work of intelligence researcher Elsbeth Stern. Stern is a full professor of empirical teaching and learning research and head of the Institute for Behavioural Research at ETH Zurich. Together with her team, she analysed the intelligence quotient (IQ) of Swiss secondary school pupils. «Almost half of the pupils we tested did not have the necessary intelligence,» says Stern.

A third of young people who attend secondary school do not have the cognitive skills to do so.

What does this mean? «The Swiss Matura quota stipulates that no more than 20 per cent of all young people should attend grammar school. It would make sense for this to be the most intelligent 20 per cent of their age group. If we orientate ourselves on them, the minimum IQ for grammar school should be 112 points,» says Elsbeth Stern.

46 per cent of all high school students tested did not achieve this score. «IQ tests are not perfect,» says the researcher, «for example, someone can have a bad day.» Taking such measurement errors into account, Stern has corrected the rate downwards - to 30 per cent. «That's a conservative estimate,» she emphasises, «and affects one in three secondary school pupils.»

Also overwhelmed later in the job

Why is that a problem? «Because too many unsuitable people attend university, lower their standards there or fail,» says Stern. «Or they get through by the skin of their teeth and later end up in professional positions that they are not intellectually up to.»

For many academics, the idea of their child not making it to grammar school is hard to bear. In order to secure a place for their child, well-off parents invest huge sums in private tuition.

Maximilian's parents, an academic couple from a lakeside community in Zurich, are no exception. The 12-year-old sixth-grader will be sitting his Gymi exams next March - he has been taking weekly remedial lessons at a private tutoring centre for two years. «Not because we're over-ambitious,» says his mother, «but because we want our son to have enough time to familiarise himself with new tasks that are important for the exam. There's no time for that at public school.» It is an open secret, says the father, that the test is not feasible without additional support. «Everyone relies on tutoring,» he believes, «but nobody admits it.»

A couple from the city of Zurich, this time not academics, justify their decision in favour of private grammar school preparation differently: «We are sure that our daughter is more committed there than in the course offered by the class teacher. She is too familiar with the environment and group composition to be spurred on to top performance.»

The couple also express doubts about the quality of the free preparation offered by the public school: «The teachers are obliged to give these courses - in addition to their normal lessons. The suspicion that they don't show a great deal of commitment to this extra effort is obvious.»

How much does tutoring really help?

Can drill compensate for a lack of intelligence or, as an unnamed teacher from a tutoring centre put it to a Swiss daily newspaper, «turn every idiot into a genius»? «I wouldn't put it like that,» says Stern. «But with average intelligence, there is certainly room for performance improvement - if you train accordingly and know what to expect.»

In this respect, the Gymi exam is a rewarding learning goal: «All the tasks from previous years can be found on the internet, and the exam pattern is more or less the same.» However, achieving more than your intelligence can handle doesn't work in the long term, says Stern: «You might get through secondary school thanks to extra tuition, and possibly even through the first few years at university. At some point, the pressure becomes too much.»

It's not just the young adults who are left behind, «but also those who are left behind at grammar school,» says Stern. «There are certainly intelligent children in socially disadvantaged families, but they are often alone.»

Disturbing cantonal differences

The question of fairness also arises with regard to the baccalaureate rate. Although the average for Switzerland as a whole is 20.2 per cent, which is in line with the federal government's target, it varies greatly from canton to canton. While just 11 per cent of young people in Obwalden and 14 per cent in Thurgau completed their baccalaureate in 2016, the figures were much higher in Geneva (29.4 per cent) and Basel-Stadt (29.6 per cent).

«Possible reasons for these differences are political decisions in response to technological progress and the increasing demand for skilled labour,» says education researcher Moser. «But increased educational ambitions certainly also play a role.» Away from the cities, these are much less significant.

In 2016, 11 per cent of young people in Obwalden completed the gymnasiale Matura, compared to 29.6 per cent in Basel-Stadt.

Moser explains the large number of Matura students in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino with cultural differences in the education systems, which are characterised by their French and Italian counterparts respectively. «The major cantonal differences are disruptive because the baccalaureate regulates access to university,» says Moser. «It would be desirable for the requirements for certain courses to be the same in every canton.»

An expensive and inefficient system

In the long term, however, grammar school pupils in cantons with a high baccalaureate rate do not necessarily have the better cards: in Geneva and Ticino - both cantons only have a short-term grammar school after secondary school - a third of grammar school pupils drop out in the first year. «As a rule, they then try again two or three times,» says Wolter. «If they don't succeed, the path usually leads to a specialised middle school.»

Some young people do not have the necessary qualifications and fail. «And only when all else fails do they apply for an apprenticeship,» says Wolter. According to the researcher, young people in Geneva who start vocational training with a higher requirement profile are already 20 years old on average.

«This system is inefficient, expensive and tragic for those affected,» says Wolter. «It would have made more sense to come clean to the failed high school students earlier and show them the benefits of an apprenticeship straight away.»

Many high school students, many dropouts

Wolter believes that it is worse for those who have failed their A-levels «but are so bad that they can't get into university». A look at the statistics shows that an above-average high school-leaving certificate rate goes hand in hand with higher drop-out rates at universities.

The OECD says that Switzerland is in danger of falling behind internationally with its low baccalaureate rate.

Long-term data also shows that high school students in cantons with a higher baccalaureate rate have a lower average performance. Despite sometimes high failure rates during the probationary period, cantons such as Basel-Stadt, Geneva and Ticino do not succeed in weeding out young people who do not have the necessary skills for school in good time: «Then they are left without an education in their mid-20s because they fail university.»

OECD criticises Swiss Matura quota

The OECD has repeatedly criticised Switzerland for its low baccalaureate rate, claiming that it runs the risk of losing touch with international developments. «This discussion is dominated by figures that have more to do with quotas than with quality,» says Jürgen Oelkers, Professor Emeritus of General Education at the University of Zurich.

Firstly, the criticism falls short: it only takes into account the baccalaureate rate at grammar schools, even though there are now two other types of baccalaureate: technical and vocational secondary schools. If all three types are added together, Switzerland actually has a baccalaureate rate of 37 per cent.

Secondly, it is not only educational qualifications that are decisive for a country's competitiveness, but also the situation with regard to production and the labour market. This is where Switzerland scores across the board - not least thanks to its unique vocational education and training system, which the OECD does not take into account adequately. «It is also ignored that in Switzerland, unlike in other countries, higher education has not dominated the labour market to date,» Oelkers notes. «Quality is also produced in other ways, and in many sectors in Switzerland you don't need a baccalaureate to be successful.»

Education researcher Wolter agrees. The Swiss education system is one of the most permeable in the world. All doors are open even to those who do not complete a baccalaureate: «There is no single point in time at which young people have to decide on a path towards higher education. They can do the vocational baccalaureate during or after their apprenticeship, after which all universities of applied sciences are open to them. Those who want to can even go to university via the Passerelle. And even in terms of salary, an apprentice today doesn't necessarily have worse long-term prospects than a high school student.»