Kurds in Rapperswill, Switzerland launched an initiative for Kurdish language classes in the Schachen School and the first classes were held on Saturday.

The course was led by the Komelaya Hindekariya Kurdi and has a class of 7 to 14 year-olds in a 16-person classroom for the first run.

The course will be two hours a week for now, and the capacity and load will be increased in the future.

The Swiss government supports education in the mother tongue, and subsidizes schools in the country to offer language classes for immigrant children. There have been courses in 32 languages since 2014.

There are 9 schools in Zurich, Luzern, Schaffhausem, Aargau, Bern and Thurgau that offer Kurdish classes.

Perihan Göçük, a teacher at the course, said she volunteers to give Kurdish classes.

Göçük said she was involved in Kurdish language efforts in Dietikon previously, and has a year of internship and two years of teaching experience.

Before the course began, the families had a series of meetings for why mother tongue is necessary for children and the importance of children living in their cultural identities. Göçük said: “In our meetings we decided to launch Kurdish classes in Rapperswill.”

“For the first day, it was exciting to see the participation and motivation of children in the class. It was a good class. We continue to work to increase capacities for future terms. We request that the families take their children to these classes to teach them their mother tongue.”