Just in time for the start of school in the East, the Minister of Education has presented his priorities for the new school year. Polaschek wants to focus on improving reading skills. The school should become a safe space for everyone, and the main aim is to tackle the problems of increasing violence and a lack of German language skills.
The increase in reading skills will benefit the youngest children in particular. After the Austrian Reading Day was implemented last year, this year the aim is to support primary schools. In the future, there will be a nationwide reading quality seal for particularly committed primary schools.
Video: Violence prevention and German are the focus for the new school year
“Mental Health” in focus
The Minister of Education wants to set the motto for the new school year “Look instead of looking away”. The aim is to pay attention to the mental health of children and young people. Schools should become safe spaces. A first step towards this are the mandatory child protection concepts that must be in place in all schools from this school year. In addition, teachers should receive more help from multi-professional teams consisting of psychologists, social workers and other support staff.
Barbara Haid, President of the Austrian Federal Association for Psychotherapy, also calls for the school support system to be expanded. Mental health must be the focus “and integrated into the curriculum. Either in a separate subject or in existing curricula,” says the psychotherapist.
Intensive language courses in addition to support classes
Thomas Maximiuk, coordinator of the parents’ council in the Ministry of Education, agrees. Child protection should not be left to the teaching staff alone. All schools need more support staff who can stay at the schools permanently and for preventive purposes. Of course, this will require more resources, he is already appealing to the future federal government.
In addition to more school social workers, Polaschek also wants to focus on more language support. Last year, the Ministry of Education had 46 million euros available for German language support, 18 million of which went to Vienna alone. “I can imagine language assessments being carried out in the future as part of parent-child examinations and in kindergartens,” says Polaschek. The minister’s idea is to have intensive language courses before the existing German language support classes.
