When sport becomes a line item, children pay the bill

Three hours of school sport a week: for now, that is still the rule in Switzerland. But in the tidy administrative language of Entflechtung 27, that obligation is on the chopping block. The project, which is meant to redraw financing and responsibilities between the Confederation and the cantons, is now in consultation. And as so often in Swiss federalism, the noble principle of local autonomy arrives hand in hand with the less glamorous habit of passing the bill down the chain.

The resistance is already there. Stefan Frei, a sports teacher at the new Kantonsschule Aarau and head of the sports section in the Aargau teachers’ association, warns that removing the obligation would turn sport into a de facto optional subject. He argues that movement problems would become even more serious than they already are. He also says that anxiety among some pupils has become so pronounced that in ring gymnastics he can now safely do only the simplest exercises, while motor deficits continue to grow.

Frei’s fear is not merely pedagogical, but financial. If the legal requirement disappears, he expects sport to lose out in cantons that are already under pressure. When money is tight, school sport is rarely the sacred cow. It is more often the first item to be trimmed, especially when timetables are already packed and subjects compete for the same hours.

Martina Bircher, the Aargau education director, takes the opposite view. She says the competence belongs with the cantons, because school policy is their business and they should decide for themselves. Her position matches that of the Conference of Cantonal Governments. Yet even she does not claim that reducing sport hours would be a political success story; in her view, there is no majority for such a cut in the cantons, and it makes little sense when more and more children are overweight.

The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education, the EDK, sees no problem with abolishing the federal obligation. In a written statement to SRF, it said that physical education is already sufficiently and conclusively regulated through the cantonal curricula. That is a neat institutional answer, if one ignores the rather inconvenient fact that curricula do not build gym halls, hire teachers or create space where none exists.

Jonathan Badan, president of the Swiss Association for Physical Education in Schools, points precisely to that gap between paper and practice. He warns that under growing spending pressure, some cantons could be tempted to cut sport lessons once the legal safeguard is gone. The concern is not abstract. A triple sports hall can cost well over ten million francs, and Switzerland already has too few sports halls. New construction is moving slowly, while many cantons and municipalities are under fiscal strain.

Ursula Anderegg, education director of the city of Bern, confirms that urban density makes the search for space especially difficult. Bern opposes abolishing the obligation. She also says the issue of costs repeatedly fuels debate, though she remains convinced that the public strongly supports school sport.

Until 10 July, associations, cities and municipalities can still submit their views. A first decision is expected in autumn. By then, Switzerland will know whether it wants school sport to remain a basic commitment or become another convenient casualty of budget discipline.

Written by Sandy van Dongen sandy.vandongen@alpineweekly.com