From next school year there will be new curricula for primary school, secondary school and the lower years of the AHS. Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) presented the long-awaited plans on Monday. Changes are planned, including in political education and financial education.
In addition, national defense and social partnership were more firmly anchored. In detail, general educational goals, general didactic principles, interdisciplinary skills and 47 subject curricula are given. The AHS superstructure should also be based on this in their new curricula from 2027/28. In addition, work is currently underway on the further elaboration of the plans for MBO and HBO schools (BMHS).
Save as course content
According to Polaschek, the curricula prescribed on Monday contain more financial and economic education than in the draft test, for example in the field of saving and competition in the social market economy. In political education, for example, the emphasis is on the influence of the media on politics and society, participation and federalism.
Polaschek also wants to change the current practice, in which all curricula are re-prescribed at once after a certain period of time. A committee will therefore be set up in the future to regularly discuss new topics and content and to review and propose how to embed them. This committee should consist of representatives of the teachers, the ministry, the universities and the teacher training colleges. “The process (…) was too long and too slow. The world is changing rapidly and a modern school must therefore develop quickly,” said the Minister of Education.
Many positive reactions
There were many positive reactions to the new curricula and the committee on Monday. Among them are the President of the Rectors Conference of the Austrian Universities of Education (PH), Walter Vogel, the Rector of the PH Lower Austria, Erwin Rauscher, Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Industry. “We welcome the fact that curricula are now finally available to the public. This step was long overdue”, responds education spokeswoman Martina Künsberg Sarre of NEOS.
Deputy general secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, Mariana Kühnel, also wants mandatory training and refresher courses for teachers in the field of financial education. Entrepreneurial thinking and economics education would help to understand economic relationships,” Secretary General of the Federation of Industry, Christoph Neumayer, wrote in a press release.
Since 2018, the new curricula are under development. They will come into force from the 2023/24 school year for the first grades of primary or secondary school/AHS lower level, a year later for the second grades, etc.
Source: Krone
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