Vienna's elementary schools: Almost 21% of students with a need for German funding

Vienna's elementary schools: Almost 21% of students with a need for German funding

In Vienna's elementary schools, the number of extraordinary students remains high. Currently, 15,613 of 73,280 students, which corresponds to around 21 percent, have a special status because they are temporarily unable to fully follow the lessons. This burden on the education system has been constant for years, and many of the affected children are fighting with lack of knowledge of German.

The Vice City Councilor and City Councilor Christoph Return (NEOS) presents these figures that make it clear that around 52 percent of these students were born in Austria. In addition, around 20 percent have Austrian citizenship. The increase in extraordinary number of students reflects global crisis events, in particular the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, which lead to increased refugee flows

criticism of the conditions

The school situation is exposed to critical consideration. Return expresses that the increase to students who need German funding is not accompanied by sufficient resources. A central point of criticism is that the federal government does not provide enough positions for these German funding programs. This forces Vienna to provide additional funds for funding measures from the general budget.

Another factor that reinforces the challenge is that around 60 percent of children in Viennese kindergartens speak a different mother tongue than German. This fact underlines the need for targeted language support in the early years of education.

measures for language support

To counteract this, the City of Vienna has been relating to an initiative called "Wiener Summer Learning" for two years. Around 4,000 pupils annually have the opportunity to take part in free German courses during the summer vacation. Recurring confirms how important learning the German language is for integration: "Learning German is not optional, but a must!"

In order to meet the needs of these children, both the city and the participation of the parents are required. The city has already strengthened its efforts to promote language support in kindergarten. There is a clear need for further measures at all political levels to ensure a better distribution of resources and to create a more extensive range of courses during the summer vacation.

For more information on this topic, see the current reports on www.meinbezirk.at .