Learning and behavioral problems, school and exam anxiety, experiences of bullying and choosing the right training path: school psychologists should support children and young people in all of these areas, according to the Ministry of Education’s website. Teachers and guardians should also be supported and advised. But psychological staff are few and far between in Austria’s schools: there were 194.62 full-time equivalents in June 2024. A full-time equivalent is defined as the number of hours worked divided by the usual working hours of a full-time employee. The total number of school psychologists is therefore likely to be higher if some of them are only employed part-time.
This means that there is one school psychologist for every 5,600 children and young people, complains Neos education spokeswoman Martina Künsberg Sarre. This ratio is “unacceptable” and the turquoise-green federal government and Education Minister Martin Polaschek have “completely failed” in recent years.
Decline in social workers in Styria
Since the 2019/20 school year – the Neos were interested in the development during the legislative period – the number of full-time equivalents has increased by a total of a good 15 percent, according to a recent response to an inquiry from the Ministry of Education. The largest increase, at more than 25 percent, was in Vienna, where there were a total of a good 40 full-time equivalents at the end of the last school year. Styria is at the bottom of the list: there, the number of school psychologists has only increased by 4.62 to 25.11 full-time equivalents in the past school years. Künsberg Sarre sees a “dramatic situation”. A full-time equivalent is defined as the number of hours worked divided by the usual working hours of a full-time employee. The total number of school psychologists is therefore likely to be higher if some of them are only employed part-time.
The Ministry of Education has recorded a much larger increase in social workers and psychosocial support staff in schools across Austria. Their number more than doubled from 2019/20 to June 2024 and most recently stood at just over 144 full-time equivalents. While the number of social workers in Vienna’s schools has more than tripled, Styria is the only federal state to record a decrease.
