Requirements for Appointments as a School Head

The local authorities in the main are responsible for appointing the school head at primary and lower secondary level, and the cantonal authorities at upper secondary level. New school administration vacancies are publicly advertised. 
School heads must as a rule have a teaching degree for the corresponding school level and several years’ professional experience. In the course of the introduction of school administrations additional training courses have been developed for school heads. School administration-specific training courses may be recognised throughout Switzerland by the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK). Graduates of a recognised training course receive a “School Head (EDK)” certificate. Appointment as a school head is increasingly being made dependent on this type of additional training.

Conditions of Service

Conditions of service from entering the profession to retirement are regulated by cantonal acts and provisions. School heads, in compulsory education in particular, usually also have teaching duties alongside their management role. They are generally relieved of some teaching duties and may be classed in a higher salary group than teaching staff. The same conditions apply in principle to professional status, working time, mobility, dismissal and retirement and pensions as for teaching staff. A few cantons have set a time limit on the term of office of upper secondary level school heads.