Bilingual classes should be possible everywhere in canton Bern, say lawmakers

Bilingual classes should be possible everywhere in the canton of Bern Keystone-SDA

Bilingual school classes should be possible everywhere in canton Bern and no longer depend on the initiative or the resources of the municipalities, say Swiss lawmakers.

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On Tuesday, Bern’s cantonal parliament passed a motion to this effect by a clear majority of 76 votes to 49, with one abstention.

The motion, backed by parliamentarians from six parties, urges the cantonal government to take all legislative and financial steps needed to ensure that municipalities choosing to do so can offer bilingual classes as part of the standard primary school curriculum.

The vote follows a heated debate about bilingual classes in the city of Bern. In May 2025, the Bern city authorities announced that it would not be continuing its Classes Bilingues (Clabi) educational project, which had been running since 2019. The authorities justified the decision with financial and organisational arguments.

The cantonal government said it has been providing funding to promote bilingualism since 2020. With the additional federal aid, numerous educational projects could have been supported. A wide range of programmes to promote bilingualism had been established in the education sector.

Implementing the motion’s core demand would require amending the legal framework. Education Director Christine Häsler (Green Party) noted that work on a cantonal law on languages and bilingualism had been proposed for 2024, and the government is examining bilingual classes within that process.

There was a certain amount of scepticism towards this demand for bilingual classes, particularly in conservative circles. They argue that there were already enough instruments in place to fulfil the demand for bilingual classes. In addition, the proposal as formulated leaves no room for manoeuvre in its implementation.

Those in favour cited the benefits of bilingual education, saying that Bern would do well to promote bilingualism. If municipalities could now simply set up such classes with a new regulation, this would be a benefit.

The cantonal government would have liked to accept the request merely as an examination mandate, but parliament stood firm and referred the proposal in the binding form of a motion.

Adapted from German by AI/sb

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