How schooling works, what it costs, how to enrol and how to choose between the state system, a Swiss private school and an international school. Written from official cantonal and federal sources, each one linked.
You are moving to Switzerland with a child, or you are 17 and looking for where to continue. Fill in these fields: the tool places your level within the Swiss system, tells you who decides on admission, what to prepare, and which schools in our database match.
Place my child in the Swiss system →Eleven years of compulsory, free schooling run by the cantons rather than by the federal state. What an arriving family needs to understand before choosing.
Read →Three routes, three logics. Length of stay and continuity of qualification matter more than budget in this decision.
Read →Who to contact, which papers to prepare and when, depending on whether you are arriving in Geneva, the canton of Vaud or Zurich.
Read →Authorised, recognised, accredited, certified — four words that mean four different things. What Swiss federal law actually protects, and what it does not.
Read →How Swiss school years map onto France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Italy and Spain, anchored to the international ISCED classification.
Read →Rules differ from canton to canton and change. Always confirm with your canton or municipality before acting on anything here.