NEOS Vienna select new team and demand basic digital education from elementary school onwards as well as strict smartphone rules in the classroom.

As part of today’s NEOS Vienna state member event, a clear commitment to strengthening digital skills in Austria’s education system was made through an application. The focus is on introducing basic skills in the area of ​​artificial intelligence (AI) from elementary school onwards. “Digital literacy” and media competence should no longer be marginal topics, but should become a central part of the curriculum. The NEOS also reiterated their demand for the school subject “Life in a Democracy”, which is intended to teach young people important social basics.

NEOS Vienna also sees teacher training as having a responsibility to respond to advancing digitalization: an AI competence center should take on a central role here and act as a contact point for training offers and data protection-compliant licenses. “Teachers must have the necessary skills to use AI sensibly and responsibly in the classroom. In addition to promoting digital skills, we also advocate greater restrictions on smartphone use in the classroom. Studies show that the constant overstimulation of smartphones can impair the ability to concentrate and attention span. More and more countries in Europe are regulating the use of cell phones in everyday school life, even banning them – and we also see a need for action here,” said the re-elected NEOS Vienna state spokesman and deputy mayor Christoph Wiederkehr.

In addition, the members of NEOS Vienna elected the new state team and the new extended state team, i.e. the party executive board, today with the following result:
Christoph Wiederkehr’s deputy will once again be NEOS Vienna state parliament member Markus Ornig (60.84%). Andreas Köb remains the state finance officer (95.56%). The other members of the national team are NEOS Vienna club chairwoman Bettina Emmerling (66.67%), European MP Anna Stürgkh (66.31%), lawyer Karl-Arthur Arlamovsky (72.76%) and state parliament member Selma Arapović (86.02%).

The extended state team is completed by IT and innovation expert Ines Holzegger, the NEOS Vienna state parliament member Stefan Gara, the district councilors Johannes Bachleitner from Hietzing, Philipp Pichler from Hernals and Maria In der Maur-Koenne from Landstrasse and the communications and digitalization expert Lukas Burian.

Further information about the applications and details of the state member event can be found here: NEOS state member event.