page_title: Steffisburg
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Steffisburg / Education
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Schulhaus Erlen in Steffisburg
context_page_description: Steffisburg is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2020 the former municipality of Schwendibach merged into the municipality of Steffisburg.
context_section_description: In Steffisburg about 59.6% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 17.7% have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).  Of the 1,606 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 75.7% were Swiss men, 18.9% were Swiss women, 4.0% were non-Swiss men and 1.4% were non-Swiss women.
  The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, followed by six years of Primary school.  This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude.  Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.
  During the 2012–13 school year, there were a total of 1,603 students attending classes in Steffisburg.  There were a total of 236 students in the German language kindergarten classes in the municipality.  Of the kindergarten students, 13.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 17.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language.  The municipality's primary school had 882 students in German language classes.  Of the primary students, 14.4% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 16.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language.  During the same year, the lower secondary school had a total of 485 students.  There were 11.8% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 17.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language.
  As of  2000, there were a total of 1,739 students attending any school in the municipality.  Of those, 1,481 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 258 students came from another municipality.  During the same year, 309 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
  Steffisburg is home to the Gemeindebiblothek library.  The library has (as of 2008) 10,373 books or other media, and loaned out 31,200 items in the same year.  It was open a total of 260 days with average of 15 hours per week during that year.
caption: Erlen school house in Steffisburg
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