67 percent of these first graders were born in Austria – German language support in kindergarten failed
Vienna (OTS) – “Already a third of the first graders in Vienna’s elementary schools speak German so poorly that they cannot follow regular lessons as special students. 67 percent of these children were born in Austria and attended kindergarten for an average of two to four years. Nevertheless, by the time they start school, they have not acquired sufficient knowledge of German to be able to follow regular lessons as regular students,” said state party chairman City Councilor Karl Mahrer and Education Spokesman City Councilor Harald Zierfuß in response to current figures in a written query from the Vienna People’s Party.
“Specific individual measures from the Vienna city government are not enough here. “It takes a massive effort to promote German in Vienna’s kindergartens to correct this undesirable development,” said education spokesman Harald Zierfuß.
According to the current query response from Education City Councilor Christoph Wiederkehr, in the 2022/23 school year there were 7,145 extraordinary students out of a total of around 20,000 first graders in Vienna’s elementary schools, which corresponds to more than a third. 4,767 of them (66.7 percent) were born in Austria, 4,810 of them (67.3 percent) attended kindergarten for more than a year. On average, the kindergarten was attended by non-standard students aged 2 to 4 years. “It is clear: German language support in kindergarten is failing. Thousands of children are born here, grow up here, go to kindergarten here for years and yet do not learn enough German to be able to follow the lessons before they start school,” say Mahrer and Zierfuß.
“These failures before starting school are difficult and expensive to make up for at school. “We have to do everything we can to ensure that children who are born here learn enough German by the time they start school so that they have the same opportunities for a successful education and thus a successful training career,” said Mahrer.
“Promotion of German is integrated into everyday life and must therefore actually be integrated into everyday life. The selective use of German language support staff is not enough here. “In this respect, it is high time that a C1 level is also required for assistants,” says Zierfuß. In addition, in Vienna there is a requirement for kindergarten at the age of 3 for all children who cannot speak German sufficiently.
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