zh-education-mcp 0.1.0

MCP-Server für Bildungsstatistiken des Kantons und der Stadt Zürich (BISTA)

🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

📊 zh-education-mcp

MCP server for education statistics of the Canton and City of Zurich (BISTA)

🇩🇪 Deutsche Version

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Overview

zh-education-mcp connects AI assistants to the Bildungsstatistik Kanton Zürich (BISTA) — the official education statistics of the Canton of Zurich. It provides structured access to pupil numbers, school district trends, secondary school profiles, nationality breakdowns, and gymnasium graduation rates.

Source	Data	API
BISTA Kanton Zürich	Learner statistics (Volksschule, Mittelschulen, Maturität)	REST/CSV

All data is fetched from the BISTA public API (bista.zh.ch/basicapi/ogd/) — no API key required. Data is updated annually on 15 September (reference date).

Anchor demo query: "How has the number of pupils in school district Letzi developed over the last 5 years?"

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Features

• 📊 8 tools for education data across all school levels
• 🔍 School district trends — pupil numbers for all Schulkreise (Letzi, Glattal, Schwamendingen, Oerlikon, Uto, Waidberg, Zürichberg) from 2000 to present
• 🏫 Secondary school profiles — breakdown by requirement type (Sek A/B/C, Mittelschule, special classes)
• 🌐 Nationality structure — top nationalities of pupils per school community
• 🎓 Gymnasium graduation rates — Maturitätsquote by municipality, district, and canton
• 📈 Canton-wide overview — all learners by school level, type, gender, and nationality
• 🏠 Residence-based trends — pupil counts by place of residence (Bezirk / Gemeinde)
• 🏛️ Mittelschulen — Gymnasium, FMS, HMS statistics
• 🔓 No API key required — all data under CC BY 4.0
• ☁️ Dual transport — stdio (Claude Desktop) + Streamable HTTP (cloud)

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• uv (recommended) or pip

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Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/malkreide/zh-education-mcp.git
cd zh-education-mcp

# Install
pip install -e .
# or with uv:
uv pip install -e .

Or with uvx (no permanent installation):

uvx zh-education-mcp

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Quickstart

# stdio (for Claude Desktop)
python -m zh_education_mcp.server

# Streamable HTTP (port 8000)
python -m zh_education_mcp.server --http --port 8000

Try it immediately in Claude Desktop:

"Wie hat sich die Lernendenzahl im Schulkreis Letzi entwickelt?" "Zeige die Maturitätsquote der Stadt Zürich" "Welche Nationalitäten sind in Adliswil am häufigsten?"

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Configuration

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zh-education": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "zh_education_mcp.server"]
    }
  }
}

Or with uvx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zh-education": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["zh-education-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Config file locations:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Cloud Deployment (SSE for browser access)

For use via claude.ai in the browser (e.g. on managed workstations without local software):

Render.com (recommended):

1. Push/fork the repository to GitHub
2. On render.com: New Web Service → connect GitHub repo
3. Set start command: python -m zh_education_mcp.server --http --port 8000
4. In claude.ai under Settings → MCP Servers, add: https://your-app.onrender.com/sse

💡 "stdio for the developer laptop, SSE for the browser."

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Available Tools

Tool	Description
zh_edu_list_schulgemeinden	List all school communities / Schulkreise in Canton Zurich
zh_edu_schulkreis_trend	Pupil trend by Schulkreis (2000–present)
zh_edu_overview	Canton-wide learner overview by school level
zh_edu_sek1_profil	Secondary I profile (Sek A/B/C breakdown)
zh_edu_staatsangehoerigkeiten	Nationality structure of pupils per school community
zh_edu_maturitaetsquote	Gymnasium graduation rates by municipality / district
zh_edu_wohnort_trend	Residence-based learner trend (Bezirk / Gemeinde)
zh_edu_mittelschulen	Secondary school statistics (Gymnasium, FMS, HMS)

Example Use Cases

Query	Tool
"List all Schulkreise in Zurich"	zh_edu_list_schulgemeinden
"Pupil trend in Letzi over 5 years"	zh_edu_schulkreis_trend
"How many Sek A vs Sek B in Winterthur?"	zh_edu_sek1_profil
"Top nationalities in Zürich-Letzi"	zh_edu_staatsangehoerigkeiten
"Maturitätsquote of Stadt Zürich"	zh_edu_maturitaetsquote

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Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────┐
│   Claude / AI   │────▶│  zh-education-mcp            │────▶│  BISTA Kanton Zürich     │
│   (MCP Host)    │◀────│  (MCP Server)                │◀────│  REST/CSV (Public API)   │
└─────────────────┘     │                              │     └──────────────────────────┘
                        │  8 Tools                     │
                        │  Stdio | Streamable HTTP     │
                        │  24h Cache                   │
                        │  No authentication required  │
                        └──────────────────────────────┘

Data Source Characteristics

Source	Protocol	Coverage	Auth	Update
BISTA Kanton ZH	REST/CSV	Learner statistics 2000–present	None	Annual (15 Sep)

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Project Structure

zh-education-mcp/
├── src/zh_education_mcp/
│   ├── __init__.py              # Package
│   └── server.py                # 8 tools, cache, dual transport
├── tests/
│   └── test_server.py           # Unit tests (mocked HTTP with respx)
├── .github/workflows/ci.yml     # GitHub Actions (Python 3.11/3.12/3.13)
├── pyproject.toml
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── LICENSE
├── README.md                    # This file (English)
└── README.de.md                 # German version

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Known Limitations

• Annual updates only: BISTA data is updated once per year (reference date: 15 September). The 24h in-memory cache matches this cycle.
• CSV-based API: The BISTA API returns CSV data; large datasets may take a moment to parse.
• School community names: Names must match exactly (use zh_edu_list_schulgemeinden to find valid names).

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Testing

# Unit tests (no API calls)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "not live"

# Integration tests (live API calls)
pytest tests/ -m "live"

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE

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Author

Hayal Oezkan · malkreide

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Credits & Related Projects

• BISTA: pub.bista.zh.ch — Bildungsstatistik Kanton Zürich (CC BY 4.0)
• Protocol: Model Context Protocol — Anthropic / Linux Foundation
• Related: zurich-opendata-mcp — Zurich city open data (parking, weather, parliament)
• Related: swiss-cultural-heritage-mcp — Swiss cultural heritage data
• Related: fedlex-mcp — Swiss federal law
• Portfolio: Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio