14.8 percent of students in Vienna do not understand the lessons

The number of exceptional students at public primary schools in Vienna remains high. This emerges from the numbers that have now been assessed for the end of June 2024. At that time the proportion was 14.8 percent. These are children who know too little German to follow the lessons. In particular, of 71,097 students in public primary schools, 10,535 had this status at the end of the last school year.

The proportion may change during the school year. On the one hand, exceptional new students always come through family reunions. On the other hand, children lose their status if they have sufficient language skills or even without them after two years at most. According to the Office of the City Counsel for Education, the children affected were: Christoph Wiederkehr (Neos) about 17 percent have Austrian citizenship. Almost half of the amazing students – that’s more than 45 percent – were born in Austria.

Return: Numbers indicate wars

The global crises such as the wars in Syria and Ukraine can be seen in the numbers, explained Wiederkehr. The associated refugee movements have led to strong growth in student numbers. In the last three school years – from 2022 to now – about 4,000 more children have been admitted. However, he complained that the sharp increase was not accompanied by more resources to promote German. The positions provided by the federal government to promote German would be “far too small”. According to the Vienna City Council of Education, additional positions have been drawn from the general pool to promote German in recent years.

In addition, the Neos politician complained, the appointments for German promotion were terminated. As soon as there is a certain number of outstanding students, the federal government will no longer provide additional positions to promote German. As a result, 5,000 affected people in Vienna would not receive additional hours of language lessons from federal funds.

Wiederkehr referred to his call for an Austria-wide opportunity index. This is “more important than ever” as it would manage resources according to the level of challenge for the individual school situation. Places with special challenges would receive more funding than those that do not. “Vienna has much bigger challenges than, for example, rural areas,” he said. In addition, around 60 percent of Viennese kindergarteners already have a first language other than German, the city council said. The family environment also plays a big role. Children from educationally disadvantaged homes often have difficulty meeting the language needs of everyday school life.

The city of Vienna, Wiederkehr is sure, is already taking several steps to deal with the changed requirements for basic education. The number of language assistants in nursery schools will be gradually increased.

ÖVP sees “complete failure”

According to ÖVP Vienna, the promotion of German in kindergartens has “completely failed”. Education spokesman Harald Zierfuß blamed the city government for the fact that children who are born here, grow up and attend kindergarten still do not speak enough German. This has nothing to do with the movements or situation of refugees, he said in response. “But regardless of the construction site in the education sector of Vienna – for City Councilor Wiederkehr there is always only one person to blame and that is the federal government,” criticized Zierfuß. The ÖVP wants, among other things, that all three-year-olds who need support must go to kindergarten, including German language support.

The Greens also pointed out that almost half of the students who cannot follow lessons adequately because of language problems were born in Vienna. This shows a “systemic failure in language support” in Vienna’s kindergartens, according to the team of education spokesperson Julia Malle and Felix Stadler. They were convinced that, among other things, permanent language assistants would be essential for all nurseries where needed. (APA)