Vienna plans language supporters for children: Doubling to 1,000!

Vienna plans language supporters for children: Doubling to 1,000!

Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) has announced a significant increase in the number of language supporters in urban kindergartens. The aim is to double the number of specialists in this area from around 400 to over 1,000. This decision is made in the context of the current educational development and underlines the importance of language support for children in Vienna.

According to the SPÖ and Neos plans, the number of language supporters should increase to 500 by autumn 2025. This initiative is against the background that the occupation of the respective items is challenging. Vice Mayor and Education Councilor Bettina Emmerling (NEOS) pointed out that the number of language supporters stagnated by 2023 after a strong expansion and slightly declined when you look at the full -time equivalent.

meaning of language support

language is an essential basis for the educational and life path of a child. The targeted promotion of the German language is crucial in order to offer the children a good basis for their future. In this context, it is important to meet the family languages of the children. Language promotion is seen as the task of the entire educational team in urban and private kindergartens, as the city of Vienna emphasizes.

A targeted overview of the language development of the children enables the language level survey, which takes place two years before the start of school. This measure serves to systematically observe and support the language stand of the children.

support offers for language support

Different support offers are provided to effectively design language support. These include:

• Language promoters
• Language advice
• different learning materials

The planned measures to increase language supporters are a step in the right direction in order to strengthen the linguistic and thus social integration in Vienna. With the progress of this initiative, the city wants to meet the different needs of children and their families and make an important contribution to early childhood education.

For more information you can see the reports from vienna.at and wien.gv.at