70,000 euros for learning success: Caritas starts school start aid in Carinthia!

70,000 euros for learning success: Caritas starts school start aid in Carinthia!

The Sparkasse has launched an important initiative to support families in need, especially with regard to the start of school. This support includes the introduction of school (start) help to take on school costs, excursions and materials for families in need. The foundation provides a total of 70,000 euros for nine Caritas learning cafes that offer free afternoon care, learning aid, healthy snacks and leisure activities. This is an essential measure to ensure that all children can start the new school year. More than 99 % of children in these learning cafes reached the next school level last year, which underlines the effectiveness of this program. The board member Johann Lintner emphasizes the crucial role of education for the future.

Support for children from people affected by poverty and single parents is particularly important. Caritas Director Ernst Sandriesser describes education as the best poverty prevention and thanks the Sparkasse for their support. An example of the success of these initiatives is the student Asmail, who was able to improve its math skills by regular practice in the learning café and ultimately achieve one in the testimony.

School start campaign and growing educational poverty

In Vienna, Caritas also starts a school start campaign that is intended to support families with low incomes. Educational scissors in Austria are growing, and families affected are particularly affected. Caritas director Klaus Schwertner is concerned about the high financial burdens that come to families: average expenses per child and school year are around 2,200 euros. Last year, families spent around 168 million euros on private tutoring, which remains unaffordable for many. In this context, Caritas offers cheap school matters in its “Carlas” markets as long as stocks last.

The high demand for educational offers can be seen in the 74 learning cafes of Caritas, which support around 2,200 children. These facilities are indispensable, because 96 percent of the children participate in these programs conclude the school year positively. At the same time, there are over 860 children on the waiting list, and 86 educational locations are waiting for capacities for the Frei.Piel project, which supports students directly in schools and kindergartens.

Volunteers as a key resource

In order to maintain the offers, Caritas urgently seeks volunteers as a learning helper. Interested parties who have about two hours a week can contact voluntarily@caritas-kaernten.at or 0463/55560–921. Interns are also welcome and make a significant contribution to expanding the educational offers.

Education is not only crucial in knowledge society, but also in the fight against poverty. It opens up new professional perspectives and enables a self -determined life. Nevertheless, families affected are often confronted with large hurdles: high costs for childcare and inadequate public funding make access to educational offers difficult. Therefore, Caritas calls for comprehensive reforms in the field of education and a basic child protection in order to effectively tackle the challenges in connection with child poverty.

The need to make educational offers accessible to everyone is clear. Measures must begin early to counteract the growing poverty in education and to reduce barriers that make it difficult to participate in education for disadvantaged groups.