Educational emergency: Every second elementary school child in Vienna does not speak German!

Education City Councilor Christoph Return describes the situation as "dramatic" and in particular takes responsibility for the federal government, since the financial means for language support have been dramatically reduced. In the past six years, the Ministry of Education has halved the budget for this important support. This can also be seen in the fact that over half of the points provided for language support in Vienna are vacant, which underlines the need for further measures. In many Viennese districts, the proportion of children who do not speak sufficiently German is already in alarming 60 percent or more, for example in Margareten with increasing values ​​up to 74 %.

The situation is also tightened by migration backgrounds and the consequences of pandemic. Many children did not use kindergarten offer during the critical period, which they now throws back at school. Not only migrants, but also born in Austria, fight with the German language, which indicates a failed integration. The parents are also responsible: withholding a solid German language base from home has profound negative effects on children's learning skills. External experts are already calling for preventive measures, such as German tests for three -year -olds in order to recognize and counter language deficits at an early stage.