This chapter provides a thematic and chronological overview of national reforms and policy developments since 2017.

The introduction of the chapter describes the overall education strategy and the key objectives across the whole education system. It also looks at how the education reform process is organised and who are the main actors in the decision-making process.

The section on ongoing reforms and policy developments groups reforms in the following broad thematic areas that largely correspond to education levels:

• Early childhood education and care
• School education
• VET and adult learning
• Higher education
• Transversal skills and employability

Inside each thematic area, reforms are organised chronologically. The most recent reforms are described first. Finally, the section on the European perspective provides links to European strategies in which education and training have a prominent role.  

Overall national education strategy and key objectives

The Federal Constitution obliges the Confederation and the cantons, within the scope of their responsibilities, to jointly ensure the high quality and permeability of the Swiss education area. To allow them to carry out these tasks, the Confederation and the cantons have established education monitoring. Based on the current knowledge of the education system (National Education Reports 2010 and 2014), and taking an overall view of the system, in 2011 and 2015 they laid down joint education policy objectives to be addressed at national and intercantonal level. The objectives of the 2015 declaration remain valid. They were, however, amended in the light of new results from the third Swiss Education Report 2018 and converted into the Erklärung 2019: Chancen optimal nutzen - gemeinsame bildungspolitische Ziele für den Bildungsraum Schweiz [Declaration 2019: Optimal use of opportunities - joint education policy objectives for the Swiss education area].

Since December 2016, the development of joint education policy objectives and the identification of educational policy challenges that the Confederation and the cantons intend to meet in a coordinated manner have been anchored in the Vereinbarung vom 16. Dezember 2016 zwischen dem Bund und den Kantonen über die Zusammenarbeit im Bildungsraum Schweiz [agreement between the Confederation and the cantons on cooperation in the Swiss education area].

The 2019 Declaration focuses on strategic objectives to which the national level can contribute or whose achievement can only be guaranteed at the national level.  This is possible through coordinated action by the Confederation and the cantons (intercantonal level), or through the action of the individual stakeholders in their respective spheres of responsibility.

The authorities of the Confederation and the cantons orient themselves, in implementing the objectives, by the following principles:

• They act with an overall view of the system
• They rely on findings from research and statistics
• They consider the specific characteristics of a multilingual country
• They are committed to ensuring the equivalent social recognition of general education and vocational education pathways and their international connectivity, i.e. for the dual vocational and professional education and training system, which is regarded as a model of success for Switzerland, for academic excellence, and for collaboration on research activities 
• They are committed to ensuring that the available opportunities and potentials for individuals and society as a whole can be used to the best possible advantage
• A successful education system offers people the chance to develop their independence and be successful. It also promotes future-oriented social and economic development in Switzerland.

The joint objectives are:

• In compulsory education, the starting age, compulsory school attendance, the duration of the different levels of education, and the transition from one level to another are standardised and the objectives harmonised. In order to harmonise the objectives, national educational objectives in particular have been adopted in the form of basic competences in the fields of school language, second national language and English, mathematics and natural sciences, and curricula drawn up at regional language level and geared to these competences have been applied
• 95% of all 25 year-olds have an upper secondary level leaving certificate
• Ensuring, in the long term, that the baccalaureate qualifies holders for admission to university without the need for any further examinations
• The profiles of programmes offered at tertiary level are refined
• Measures have been defined which will help reduce drop-out rates at Swiss universities
• Throughout the education system the process of starting, transferring, and returning to education and training is promoted and supported by information and guidance
• The education system anticipates the new challenges of the digitised world of work and society
• Exchange and mobility are anchored in education and are promoted at all levels of education

From the joint objectives, the Confederation and the cantons derive concrete measures for their respective spheres of responsibility. The next Education Report (2022 edition) will address the achievement of the objectives and the effectiveness of the measures adopted.

Topics such as education for sustainable development, political education, the further implementation of didactics in teacher training or activities in STEM fields and health with the aim of counteracting the shortage of skilled workers are not defined as independent objectives in the Declaration 2019, but are also among the areas in which the Confederation and the cantons coordinate their activities.

Overview of the education reform process and drivers

The Confederation and the cantons each have their own responsibilities in the Swiss education area, which is characterised by federalism. While the cantons are primarily responsible for compulsory education, both the cantons and the Confederation have their own specific responsibilities in the post-compulsory education sector (general education schools, vocational and professional education and training, higher education), and they therefore have joint responsibility for these levels of education. The Federal Constitution governs the particular responsibilities of the Confederation and the cantons and obliges them at the same time, within the scope of their responsibilities, to jointly ensure the high quality and permeability of the Swiss education area. The Confederation and the cantons accordingly lay down joint education policy objectives for the Swiss education area (see above). The stakeholders also define their own objectives for their respective spheres of responsibility.

Confederation

In the Botschaft zur Förderung von Bildung, Forschung und Innovation in den Jahren 2017–2020 [Dispatch on Education, Research and Innovation 2017-2020], the Federal Council formulates the guidelines, objectives and measures of its education and science policy for a period of four years. In order to achieve the objectives set, the corresponding financial resources are also approved. The guideline for the 2017–2020 funding period is Continuity with targeted further development. In the field of education, the Federal Council has defined three priority areas:

• Tertiary level professional education and training: better funding of preparatory courses
• Up-and-coming academics: promotion through incentive-based measures
• Human medicine: measures to increase graduation rates

Cantons

In matters which require a joint solution, the 26 cantons coordinate between each other in the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK). In an activity programme the cantons lay down the issues they wish to address together at intercantonal level in the following years. The EDK has a subsidiary role, i.e. it performs tasks which cannot be carried out by the regions and cantons. The Tätigkeitsprogramm 2015-2019 [activity programme] lists the following objectives for instance:

• Compulsory education: ensuring implementation of the harmonisation of compulsory education, further developing language teaching, and promoting multilingualism in the national and European framework
• Upper secondary level general education: ensuring, in the long term, that the baccalaureate qualifies holders for admission to university without the need for any further examinations
• Upper secondary level VET: strengthening occupational, study and career advice
• Education monitoring and quality development: together with the Confederation, creating the evidence-based prerequisites for the development of the education system
• Education and ICT: promoting the integration of ICT into the education system
• Grants: further harmonising the cantonal grant systems and improving equal opportunities in access to education

The individual cantons and language regions also have their own objectives, some of which have far-reaching consequences, but which are not nationally initiated or coordinated. These objectives are not listed here.