Much more need than support offers: NEOS demand more commitment to students with disabilities

2023-10-16 04:44:57

A year and a half ago, the governing parties announced that they would conduct a study to examine the funding system. Here, among other things, there are clear differences between the federal states. However, the results are still not available. This is causing criticism at NEOS. After all, there are many more students who need support than there are offers of support. Since 1992, the financial equalization has stipulated that there are additional teachers per federal state for a maximum of 2.7 percent of students up to 15 who are diagnosed with special educational needs (SPF) due to a permanent physical or psychological limitation.

Actual need significantly higher

However, the actual need would be significantly higher, as data from the Ministry of Education recently showed in response to a parliamentary question from the SPÖ: In the 2022/23 school year, 4.4 percent of children and young people attended elementary, special, middle and polytechnic schools Schools (APS) have been certified as having SPF. The numbers also show clear differences by federal state; the SPF rate ranges from 2.49 percent in Tyrol to 6.67 percent in Salzburg. The reasons for this were examined in an evaluation commissioned by the Ministry of Education.

Künsberg Sarre: “That’s really shameful”

Polaschek always said that the study results were important for the realignment of the SPF in the current financial equalization negotiations. But we have been waiting for the results for half a year and are constantly being put off, criticized NEOS education spokeswoman Künsberg Sarre. “The fact that the Minister of Education is not doing more to support children with disabilities is really shameful.” After all, the government has not raised the cap on SPF funds for over 30 years, even though the actual need is significantly higher. “This is a joke! Children, parents and teachers are simply left alone.”

For Fiona Fiedler, NEOS spokeswoman for people with disabilities, it is also high time to adapt the cap of 2.7 percent to reality. “As long as we continue to wait for the results of the SPF study, this will not happen.” Until then, there would be a lack of resources to ensure that SEN students have a legal right to an 11th and 12th school year and are no longer dependent on their application for a further school year going through. In addition, uniform criteria for awarding SEN are needed across Austria in order to relieve the burden on teachers, parents and children. “The long-term goal must be to create a truly inclusive school for ALL children,” says Fiedler.

Cap on funding: “Structurally chronically underfinanced”

According to figures from the Ministry of Education, around 26,600 of the almost 599,000 APS students had special educational needs in the previous school year. States, teacher representatives and disabled people’s associations have repeatedly criticized the fact that there is too little support for children and young people with disabilities in schools due to the cap on funding. The Independent Monitoring Committee, which monitors compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in Austria, saw the cap in its most recent report as a reason for inclusive education – i.e. the joint teaching of students with and without disabilities – in Austria is “structurally chronically underfinanced”.

Ministry of Education: “Very good facilities”

In a response to a query, the Ministry of Education recently saw a “very good supply of teaching staff for this important area, even by international comparison” despite the cap: In the last school year, around 6,800 positions were made available for SEN students for 505.2 million euros In addition, there is also 25 million euros per school year through financial equalization for the states for children with SEN or structural problems due to falling student numbers.

In addition, the education department emphasized that when calculating the 2.7 percent, not only the students of the general compulsory schools (primary, middle, special and polytechnic schools) – where children and young people with SFP are usually educated – are taken into account, but also also those of the AHS lower level. The actual cap for supporting students with disabilities is therefore 3.65 percent and therefore “in fact well above the calculated value” of 2.7 percent. In addition, the federal government provides a state teaching position for 3.2 percent of eligible students.