Position paper – Education: Common inclusive education for all: Education policy is social policy!

The Austrian education system represents a two-tier education. The education system is not geared towards individual support and social integration, but towards adaptation and social selection. The main thing is not curious questions, amazement, learning together, recognizing and understanding the world around us and within us, but learning predetermined material for grades that entitle students to advance or require them to repeat a year.

After the common elementary school, students are separated. Children with very good grades in their elementary school leaving certificate go to grammar school (lower secondary school), the others go to middle school, which, like elementary school, is a compulsory school and is open to all children, regardless of their parents’ origin, income and social status. Education in Austria is still inherited. The Austrian school system reinforces social inequality, good and less good educational opportunities, property and class relationships. Too many children and young people are unsettled and demotivated by pressure to perform, learning grades and fear of school.

The problems their children face at school are not only overwhelming for working parents, mothers and especially single parents. Free time with the children is often scarce and becomes time for learning, tutoring is expensive. There are still too few all-day schools.

Dedicated teachers find little to no support in the hierarchical and chronically underfunded school system. The number of burnout cases is increasing, overcrowded classes have become the norm, and savings are being made on team teaching, individual support and educational opportunities that go beyond compulsory lessons. The acute shortage of teachers is a consequence and symptom of the crisis. The use of students and career changers does not provide a sustainable solution; in view of the school’s demands, studying to become a teacher becomes a part-time job, and for career changers it is replaced by crash courses. The main thing is that compulsory lessons take place; teaching quality and in-depth educational opportunities are less important for school administration.

For effective immediate measures to improve the working conditions of teachers, school staff and school management

Teachers do not have a common representation. Depending on the employer, Younion, GPAdjp, Vida or the ÖVP-dominated Public Service Union (GÖD) negotiate for elementary teachers. The GÖD organizes the teachers in five independent professional unions with a conservative ÖVP/FCG/ÖAAB majority.

The KPÖ supports the trade union demands for improvements in
Working conditions and relief for teachers and
School management by strengthening multi-professional teams.
means hiring more educators, but also more
School and social educators, psychologists and additional
administrative staff.

For a democratic reform and reorganization of the educational competencies of the federal, state and local governments

This major educational reform, social integration and inclusion, the nationwide expansion of all-day kindergartens, a common all-day compulsory school for all, individualized instruction in a common compulsory school that recognizes and takes into account different social and health-related educational requirements, requires clear, transparent, socially and pedagogically justified administrative structures and additional budget resources. No cuts in the form of “savings packages”, but future-oriented education budgets that allow educational institutions to set their own priorities and provide planning security.

The KPÖ supports a constitutional reform that will reorganize the educational competencies of the federal, state and local governments. It is about the future of children and young people, about future and life opportunities, about social redistribution and social cohesion. However, it must not be about party and state party political advantages – client politics in the interests of national and international financial capital.

We see the democratic turnaround in the state-organized education system sought by the KPÖ as a process that will take more than one legislative period. It must be supported by the parents, students and teachers affected. Consistent, patient cross-party persuasion, scientific support, public debates and an appropriate media presence will be necessary. The KPÖ will help to ensure that inclusion and the comprehensive school issue are discussed in the 2024 National Council elections and not ignored for electoral purposes.

For the right to a full-day kindergarten place – For better working conditions and higher wages for elementary school teachers

The KPÖ advocates the right of every child to a kindergarten place close to their home and calls for the nationwide expansion of all-day kindergartens. For every child in inclusion, we demand the provision of a caregiver and the necessary special furniture, depending on the child’s disability.

Working conditions must be improved nationwide. We support the unions’ demand for better pay that corresponds to the qualified work. The KPÖ is calling for a federal law that creates binding framework conditions for all operators of elementary education facilities, prescribing better and task-appropriate working conditions for elementary educators and support staff: more staff and smaller groups, more time to work with individual children and all-day opening hours. We are calling for task-appropriate and federally guaranteed subsidies for municipalities and other public providers of elementary education institutions and thus an end to the chronic underfunding of kindergartens and its negative effects on parents – especially women -, children and employees.

For a common, inclusive and full-day compulsory school for all 6-15 year olds

The early educational decision at the end of primary school is determined by the origin, level of education and social status of a child’s parents. This means that there are very different living conditions that prepare children for school and support school learning in very different ways. Children with good and very good grades continue their school career at an AHS, which only accepts primary school graduates with very good grades in their final certificate. The grades say less about a child’s motivation, expertise and creativity than about the educational background of their parents. Children from working-class families – with and without a migration history – usually go to a middle school, even those with good grades.

The KPÖ is committed to ensuring that individual support, social integration and inclusion determine educational work and that the constant pressure to get good grades, which burdens students, their families – especially women – and also many teachers from the 2nd grade of primary school onwards, is abolished. The 9th grade is an orientation level for choosing the further educational path, with polytechnic modules at vocational schools, vocational higher schools and general higher schools and the associated professional opportunities.

A common and inclusive compulsory school needs new didactic methods: freedom for the independent acquisition of knowledge, for finding solutions together, for curious questions, smaller classes, individualized teaching and group work. Therefore, more teachers and support staff are needed.

As a first step towards a common compulsory school for all, we propose that the lower secondary school level be made compulsory and call for the necessary amendment of the school laws of 1962.

For the removal of financial hurdles in education and a basic child benefit!

Attending school entails financial expenses for school materials, school events and projects that more and more parents cannot afford due to inflation and rising living costs. The KPÖ advocates that all students can participate in all school activities together with their schoolmates in social security and without financial hurdles. We also demand the introduction of a common free and healthy lunch in kindergartens and schools and that the public sector cover the costs of setting up kitchens, dining rooms and break rooms.

The KPÖ supports the demand for the introduction of a basic child benefit that enables all children to live in dignity. In addition to free basic infrastructure such as free lunches in educational institutions and free holiday offers, there should be a universal amount of 367 euros and an additional income-related benefit of 312 euros.

For the financing of educational reform and all socially effective budgets through the redistribution of socially generated wealth from top to bottom

We in the KPÖ are calling for a social tax policy that uses private assets, foundations, real estate and property to a greater extent than before to finance the welfare state. As the KPÖ, we are committed to the introduction of a progressive millionaire tax for assets of 1 million euros or more and the reintroduction of inheritance tax of 1 million euros or more. We also need higher tax rates on absurdly high incomes of 250,000 euros or more per year. These taxes affect the excessive wealth and inheritances of the Mateschitzes and Swarovskis. Luxury real estate and large inheritances will be taxed more heavily in order to generate revenue to finance the welfare state and reduce inequalities. In addition, we as the KPÖ are fighting for the reduction of wage tax for low incomes and the introduction of a value-added tax to better finance the welfare state through companies.

Tertiary education – universities, teacher training colleges, technical colleges, private universities, private colleges

We advocate free and unrestricted access to university, college and technical college studies. Access to universities must be free.
This also requires the democratization of universities, the expansion of participation and co-determination for students, researchers and all those employed in higher education, and not management that is fixated on efficiency and output, as in private corporations.

The KPÖ advocates that people who work in the university sector can work there securely, long-term and in research and teaching in accordance with their qualifications. We therefore oppose chain contracts and advocate long-term and secure employment relationships for researchers and teachers. In order for universities to become a place of education for all, we need the appropriate financial resources from public budgets and an annual increase in long-term performance agreements in line with the rate of inflation.

We reject precariousness and the dependence of researchers on private sponsorship money. This threatens the freedom of science and results in research increasingly being limited to economically viable areas, rather than to the benefit and well-being of the population.

Federal Executive Board of the KPÖ, 17 August 2024