NEOS on Elementary Education Day: Investments in the future instead of lost years

On the occasion of tomorrow’s Day of Elementary Education, NEOS appeal to the government negotiators from the FPÖ and ÖVP to “act wisely” and start a “decade of elementary education” with a binding plan in order to ensure the best education from the start, step by step, by 2035 to worry about. “It can be ‘ten good years’, but there is a great danger that it will be ‘five lost years’. Lost for the children, lost for integration and lost for the future of our economy and society,” warns NEOS education spokeswoman Martina Künsberg Sarre. “When it comes to consolidation measures, we definitely don’t need a thoughtless lawnmower at the expense of our children and educators – but rather an ambitious race to catch up in the education sector.”

What needs to be done to catch up has long been on the table, emphasizes the pink education spokeswoman: “We finally need a second compulsory kindergarten year, a binding step-by-step plan for smaller groups, a language development offensive and uniform, better training for assistant staff.” For Künsberg Sarre It is clear that kindergarten must finally become a real launching pad into life: “The best education right from the start is the key to a self-determined and happy life. Every investment in elementary education pays off many times over later. Anyone who saves on education, on the other hand, pays twice or three times more later and is completely oblivious to the future.”

Wiederkehr: “The federal government must follow the Vienna model instead of setting false incentives”

However, a look at the federal states with blue government participation clearly shows how little importance elementary education has for the FPÖ, emphasizes the deputy NEOS party leader and Vienna City Councilor for Education Christoph Wiederkehr: “Completely false incentives such as ‘stove bonuses’ undermine freedom of choice and equal opportunities for women and families are weakened, while the expansion of child care is neglected. We in Vienna are exemplifying the opposite model and investing one billion euros annually in elementary education, much more than any other federal state to date. With this, we NEOS managed to double the hours of assistants, hire more language support staff, run a successful image campaign against the shortage of skilled workers and we ensured that Vienna’s kindergartens have the longest opening hours and fewest closing days in all of Austria. At the same time, with the amendment to the law on inclusion and new funding guidelines, we have set standards to enable children with disabilities to participate right from the start,” said Wiederkehr, who urgently appeals to federal negotiators to follow this example.