School starts approaching – Polaschek: “All classes can continue”

Polaschek: “We advertised 8,000 vacancies for teachers before the summer. More than 14,000 applicants applied for this, many more people than were needed. At the moment, there are only 100 vacancies unfilled. And all hours are valid.” With around 120,000 employees, they are the largest employer in Austria. Polaschek: “It was a digitalized application process. Now the school management chooses its own teachers.” In general, in addition to the teaching positions that are now apparently almost completely filled again, there are also construction sites in the domestic education system.

The school decides autonomously on the ban on hand-holding
The main problems teachers face are said to be excessive bureaucracy, the lack of German language skills of students and – especially in urban areas – violence at school. Polaschek: “There are now many more preventive measures for safety and the avoidance of violence. Each school also decides autonomously whether mobile phones are banned. Also whether mobile phones used by students in class are handed in or confiscated.”

Football, swimming and running are popular
Despite all these school matters, the minister was pleased with the voluntary participation of the young people in the class challenge: “More than 140,000 pupils took part in the events. There were one thousand five hundred swimming challenges alone. But also football and running were particularly well received by the pupils in the independently suggested sports challenges.”