My conversation partner this week was V. Loras, an English teacher and a presenter in Switzerland. I have sent her an email asking her various questions related to our topic this week, and she shared with me the following:
Loras disclosed that the major topic currently being discussed in her work environment is not having enough qualified professionals specialized in early childhood. The reason for that is because daycare is a trend that is not quite common in Switzerland; children are more likely to stay at home until they are 5 or 6 years old, and go straight to Kindergarten (V. Loras, personal communication, February 23). More and more mothers are entering the workforce now as there are a lot of non-Swiss nationals, working mothers who seek daycare for their children. There are very few public daycares at the present, which are not free. The private ones are too expensive for most of the families to afford. Loras expressed that this is causing serious challenges for a growing number of families (V. Loras, personal communication, February 23).
With respect to opportunities for professional development, Loras shared that they have an association called ETAS (English Tecahers' Association of Switzerland), which is responsible for organizing various events; conferences, workshops, and other means of presentations on professional development. ETAS also issues a journal that includes publications that assist and support teachers (V. Loras, personal communication, February 23). Loras was generous to share some of her aspirations with me and wrote that one of her short-term goals is to pursue her MA in Applied Linguistics. Furthermore, she plans to press forward when she is done and seek a PhD in the near future (V. Loras, personal communication, February 23).
It's interesting how this idea of keeping children at home until Kindergarten sounds also like Sweden. I had a family from Sweden when I taught Kindergarten and they did not get worried that their child was struggling because they said in their home country, he wouldn't even be at school yet.
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ReplyDeletethanks for sharing the insights you gained from your contact in Switzerland. It is fascinating to see what issues countries around the world encounter at present. Is it more common in Switzerland that one parent stays home those 5 years, or are the maternity leave laws just that generous?
Lydia
I really enjoy reading your post about Switzerland. It seems to me that many countries are having the same issues with quality instructors for Early Childhood. It's nice to see that they have professional development courses for English teachers because many ESL teachers teach abroad without any formal training. Great post!!
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