In Austria, educational attainment is more inherited than in other countries, as the international reading comparison study PIRLS in primary education has recently shown. Although the achievement gap between children of low and high socioeconomic status in PIRLS has certainly not widened since the corona pandemic, in a recent study by the University of Vienna, 84 percent of 458 teachers surveyed stated that the educational inequality had persisted increase.
For the team led by Susanne Schwab, who have been surveying educators across Austria online four times since May 2020 about inclusive education during Covid-19, the findings of the most recent survey from November 2022 are alarming because the last survey wave was a year rather significantly fewer respondents (61.8 percent) observed a further widening of the education gap. “This suggests that the negative effects of the pandemic on the education system after three years are not considered to be weakened, but are considered to be more severe,” say the study authors.
Massive performance drop
In the most recent survey, 78 percent of educational staff surveyed viewed socioeconomically disadvantaged students (parents with low educational or occupational status, few material resources) as having worse or even significantly worse academic development than before the start of the corona pandemic. But 40 percent of students who are not socio-economically disadvantaged also experience a drop in performance. Moreover, in the most recent survey from last November, one in five respondents continued to fear that the changed framework conditions would make it more difficult for students in a class to develop a common knowledge base – even though there were no special Covid 19 measures ( test – or mask requirements, etc.) .) were no longer valid.
Against this background, it is also surprising that 60 percent more teachers feel (rather) heavily burdened than a year earlier (48 percent). This corresponds to the observation of every second pupil that there are too few school social workers or school psychologists present at their own school. In principle, job satisfaction is still high: 90 percent say they enjoy their work and enjoy being at their workplace.
Source: Krone
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