Until 2028/29, high school graduates can choose an additional oral or written Matura exam; they must make their decision by September 30. All schools must also have violence protection plans in place from the autumn.
Because the obligation to write a 40,000 to 60,000 character long written paper on a specific topic at a pre-scientific level is “no longer up to date” for Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) in times of AI language models such as ChatGPT, the approximately 17,000 high school graduates at AHS each year should in future also be able to present the result of a research, design or artistic process as a “final paper”. The documentation and reflection of the development process and the sources used should be central to verifiability and assessment. Written paper at a pre-scientific level remains possible. In theory, however, an alternative form can already be chosen this year, but only if the supervising teacher agrees.
‘,’pinpoll-271719’, null, null, ‘C0004’);
});
There are also changes to the final papers at the vocational secondary schools (BMS): these are being completely abolished, and instead there will be new reflection tools in the subject lessons. This affects 10,000 to 15,000 young people every year.
One change that affects all schools is the new violence protection concepts: From autumn, every location must have a child protection concept including a risk analysis and its own child protection team. The 2024 school regulations also include a code of conduct for all people who come to the school building and clear instructions on how to proceed in suspected cases. Part of the Ministry of Education’s focus on violence protection in the new school year is also a project with the Ministry of the Interior: Schools are to be given specific contacts at the police who they can turn to after suspensions or criminal offenses. The budget for prevention workshops in schools will be increased by 50 percent to 2.1 million euros.
The new school year also brings a curriculum amendment at the grammar schools, which allows deaf and hearing young people to take Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS) as an alternative to the second living foreign language, Latin or Greek, and as an elective subject. This means that they will also be able to take this subject for their Matura exams in the future. Although ÖGS has been constitutionally recognized since 2005, it has rarely been taught in schools until now.
The National Education Report, which is published every three years in mid to late December, is intended to provide an overview of the domestic education system; a separate section deals with the “development areas” of domestic schools.
