Viennese Councilor for Education and Deputy Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS) is demanding an “integration package” from Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) with additional resources for refugee children. Just a few weeks ago, the minister promised extra money, Wiederkehr said. “Unfortunately, nothing happened – quite the contrary.” For example, the Corona support hours were shortened.
Of the approximately 11,000 Ukrainian children and young people in the Austrian school system, approximately 3,650 currently attend a school in Vienna. That corresponds to almost 150 extra school classes, Wiederkehr calculated. The number of refugees from other countries of origin has also risen this year to the highest level since 2016.
After the migration movement in 2015, the federal government supported the states, Wiederkehr recalls: In the years 2016 to 2018, a total of almost 224 million euros was made available, of which 61 million for regular classes due to the existing compulsory education. Later, this integration pot was further increased until 2018 – for example to support additional language courses for schoolchildren who did not know enough German.
According to Wiederkehr, Vienna urgently needs more human and financial resources. In particular, these should be used to expand mobile teams – with intercultural teachers, school psychologists and language support staff.
Source: Krone
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