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New school reports add to teachers' workload

School reports in Switzerland have traditionally been merely a list of grades for each subject, but now teachers are expected to award grades relating to the pupils' personal and social skills as well as their capacity to learn, which some teachers feel just adds to their already heavy workload.
 
Hitherto, grades on Swiss school reports have ranged from 6 (the best mark) to 1 (the worst), the reverse of the system used in Germany. Unlike on English school reports, on the continent there has been little tradition in commenting on the pupils' approach to their work, so writing comments such as "could do better" is alien to many teachers here, possibly out of an unwillingness to comment on issues which do not relate directly to the subject matter taught in the classroom.
 
Now, not unlike a Standard and Poor's rating, the pupils will be awarded (++) if the above-mentioned skills are clearly recognisable, (+) if they are satisfactorily recognisable, (-) if only partially recognisable or (--) if not yet recognisable at all.
 
While this provides pupils and parents with "additional" information, it also means more yet more work for the teachers "who already have more than enough to do", according to Barbara Kurth, co president of the Canton of Zug Teachers' Association. Furthermore, a handbook published jointly by the Cantonal Department of Education and the Zug Teacher Training College advising teachers on how to assess pupils' abilities in these areas was only distributed ten days before the reports were due to be issued.
 
Zari Dzaferi, an SP cantonal parliamentarian representing Baar, has made an official complaint to the cantonal government saying that the guidelines for teachers on how to assess pupils' qualities outside the subject-matter in question had been published too late. In discussions he had held with teachers, he had learned that they found the assessment criteria difficult, especially if any sense of uniformity was to be maintained, not to mention the extra time involved.
 
However, Markus Kunz, head of the Cantonal Inspectorate of Schools, said that in effect the system had already been operational for some 20 years. "It is what actually goes on in the classroom," he said, and explained that the recent publication was merely an affirmation of current practice and contained nothing radically new.
 



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