The six Swiss cantons located along the German-French language border (Bern, Basel Landschaft, Basel Stadt, Fribourg, Solothurn and Valais) have issued an inter-cantonal agreement on a new concept for foreign language education at schools. The agreement stipulates that German-speaking students learn French before English.

Commissioned by:  Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) In the spring of 2017, the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education conducted the first ever largescale assessment to measure how well students have acquired the targeted skills in the first foreign language by the end of primary school, as defined by the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education.