A krone.tv documentary is dedicated to the status quo of our school system and explores the question of what children need to learn now to be prepared for the future.
Schools are far from being part of the 21st century; there has been consensus among education experts for years. However, in recent months the situation has deteriorated again: three teachers quit every working day, according to the Vienna teachers’ union at peak times. Lateral entrants must now fill the personnel gaps.
“Professions that don’t even exist yet”
“What are we raising our children for?” Bernd Kniefacz from the independent teachers’ union ÖLI-UG recently asked in the krone.tv lecture. Mother and former AHS teacher Manuela Bittgen also speaks. “Children are classified at school based on grades,” she says.
Bittgen is part of a learning group that teaches their children at home. The dissatisfaction with the school system was too great. “I assume that my children will pursue a career that does not yet exist. How do I prepare them? “Social skills, the ability to work in a team, creativity and logical thinking,” says Bittgen.
The developments surrounding artificial intelligence have ensured that much of what is taught in our schools has become redundant for the future labor market. Multiple crises shape society, which needs smart minds to answer important questions about the future.
Hüther: “…then you fit best into the school system.”
Learning under pressure is the most inappropriate form of learning. At this point, children are made the objects of “expectations, evaluations and measurements,” says neurobiologist Gerald Hüther. “This causes enormous irritation in the child’s brain. The brain researchers call it arousal, so to some extent everything gets mixed up.”
The most common solution that children find is to suppress their own enjoyment of learning. “Then you fit best in this school system, because then you can learn everything others tell you and where you are told what is important and what you do not need to learn.” School would be a wonderful place to learn. “But all you have to do is free her from the chains she’s still trapped in.”
Salcher: “We have enough money”
There have been problems with basic knowledge for years: nine years of school and at the end one in four fifteen-year-olds has difficulty reading. “Austria’s school performance has been in the middle of the European spectrum for years, even though we are at the top in terms of expenditure,” explains education expert Andreas Salcher. “We have the second most expensive school system in the world. That means we would have enough money to create the next best, and in my opinion the best, school system.”
What is fundamentally missing in Austria is a basic national educational consensus: “Certain things should be left out of the political struggle.”
The Education Directorate relies on more flexible curricula
When it comes to the demands of the future, flexibility is the main goal of the Directorate of Education. Until now, the curricula have been revised every ten to fifteen years. “Knowing that we have to act faster here, we will now be able to flexibly change the curricula to suit them,” said Education Minister Martin Polaschek. The goal is to be able to respond more quickly to developments such as artificial intelligence.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
