Bern's Sacred Cow: Why Early French Is Untouchable

In the delicate political ecosystem of the Canton of Bern, some issues are apparently too hazardous to even discuss. The Green Liberal Party recently learned this lesson the hard way. Their attempt to open a debate on the timing of French language instruction in primary schools was not so much defeated as it was preemptively extinguished.

The party’s proposal was, on its face, a matter of educational calibration. They suggested that teaching French should begin in the fifth grade, rather than the third. According to GLP cantonal councillor Michael Ritter, the intention was to address a widespread dissatisfaction with the current system and to have a sober, evidence-based discussion on pedagogy. It was a debate that never happened. His party executed a hasty withdrawal before the motion could even be formally considered.

The reason for this retreat was what Ritter described as fierce resistance. The pushback came swiftly, not just from the canton's French-speaking minority, which he acknowledged as understandable, but from a broader political front. The conversation was immediately reframed. What was intended as a question of educational effectiveness became a referendum on the status and respect afforded to the Francophone community.

This sensitivity is not without context. Moussia von Wattenwyl, a Green councillor representing the Bernese Jura, called the proposal a poor signal. She pointed to the still-fresh political wound of Moutier's decision to leave Bern for the Canton of Jura. In this charged atmosphere, any perceived slight to the French-speaking community is magnified. Von Wattenwyl insists that the canton has a duty to care for its minorities and act as a bridge to the French-speaking Romandie, making her relieved at the proposal's withdrawal.

While other German-speaking cantons to the east have successfully debated and even curtailed early French programs, Bern appears to be an exception. According to researcher Sandra Grizelj, who is studying the topic, this is hardly surprising. She argues that bilingualism is embedded in the canton's very DNA, an axiom that is not up for debate. This contrasts sharply with the situation in Ticino, where learning a national majority language was long seen as a practical, if unwelcome, necessity for a minority canton.

The questioning of early French elsewhere in German-speaking Switzerland, Grizelj suggests, comes from a position of majority confidence. In Bern, however, the topic is inseparable from the precarious balance of its linguistic identities. And so, a pragmatic discussion about whether pupils are overburdened or if resources could be used more effectively is shelved. The underlying educational challenges, of course, do not simply vanish because they have become politically unspeakable.

Written by Thorben Thiede thorben.thiede@alpineweekly.com