In Vienna, an average of 300 children and young people have entered the school system this year through family reunification. Teacher representatives have therefore warned of a “collapse” of Vienna’s compulsory schools, which were already struggling with a lack of staff and many students. with German problems. Now the numbers are falling, but children still form the largest group, especially children up to the age of seven. Viennese kindergartens are now feeling this too.
Even though there are in principle enough places in Vienna, the supply is becoming increasingly scarce, according to practical experts at the APA. Natascha Taslimi of the Austrian Basic Education Network (NEBÖ) says that not all children who come to Vienna through family reunification receive an offer.
There is a shortage of staff
Although there is enough space for everyone in Vienna, there is a lack of staff to support the groups. The situation varies from district to district. Viktoria Miffek from the preschool platform Educare also reports that there are often no more places, especially in inner-city areas.
The concentration of children in certain neighborhoods can lead to excessive demands. “We already have a specialist-to-child ratio that doesn’t allow us to provide that kind of support and respond to children individually,” says Miffek.
In some kindergartens, only half of the staff are trained primary school teachers, which means there is a lack of specialist knowledge to deal with them. “It is simply not within the competence of a primary school teacher to guide children with trauma in their development. “That is not possible in this setting,” criticizes NEBÖ spokeswoman Taslimi. The teachers would be left alone in this regard.
“A drop in the ocean”
For Miffek, urban measures such as additional language support staff or regular training in trauma education, among other things, are “obviously good, but a drop in the ocean of a very burdened system”. Instead of external language support, which Taslimi is also critical of, there is a need for a better care ratio and a long-term step-by-step plan to improve quality in nursery schools.
Neither NEBÖ nor Educare have received any feedback from other states on space issues related to family immigration. It is largely unclear how many children come under this heading each month and whether there are enough places for them. The data is not collected or stored by the providers – often these are the municipalities – according to the state offices responsible for kindergartens in the APA broadcast.
No concrete data from states
The states were also unable to provide figures on family reunification in the school sector when asked. For example, Lower Austria said that the data were not collected centrally. In any case, the challenges currently facing schools can be overcome. In Vorarlberg, almost 500 students with an asylum background attended school in March; it is not known how many came through family reunification. The challenge is particularly great for children who cannot read and have never been to school. According to the state press service, the capacity of schools is currently generally sufficient.
In Tyrol, according to the Education Directorate, children are only added during the school year in individual cases; no statistics are kept on motives such as family reunification. In principle, there are sufficient resources to provide everyone with a school place. According to Carinthia’s own assessment, family reunification “should not be affected too much”; according to the Education Directorate, there has been no noticeable increase in the number of children with a mother tongue other than German. In Burgenland, too, there has been no significant change in the number of asylum seekers recently; there are no specific data on family reunification. Moreover, illiterate children only enter sporadically.
“No capacity”
In Salzburg, 44 children from abroad enter the school system every month. According to the state, sufficient education can still be provided, but the secondary schools and polytechnics in the city of Salzburg are reaching their capacity limits. The space and staff situation in the schools in Styria is tense, but under control, as appears from the request of the APA by the state education council member Werner Amon (ÖVP), without giving figures. “However, there is no possibility to take in additional children in the context of family reunification.”
In Upper Austria, according to the Education Directorate, two in a thousand of the approximately 111,000 compulsory students come from a non-European country; figures on family reunification are not collected. In any case, for Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) it is “clear that Austria and Upper Austria have been pushed to the limit, simply by the distribution of asylum seekers in the EU and also by the phenomenon of family reunification”, as he recently emphasized in the APA interview.
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.
