Since autumn 2021, students in middle schools and lower secondary schools have been receiving inexpensive laptops and tablets for lessons; as a counterpart, the new compulsory subject “Digital Basic Education” was introduced in the 2022/23 school year. However, there are still no specially trained teachers for the subject. So far, “Basic Digital Education and Computer Science” can only be studied in Eastern Austria, but the offer will be available nationwide from autumn onwards.
The associations do not have to start from scratch with the new offer, as the ministry emphasized in response to an APA request: “Digital basic education” was introduced in schools as a so-called mandatory exercise in 2018. This had to be attended but was not graded. At that time, this was linked to relevant training offers for teachers in secondary school level 1. According to the ministry, the subject was taught from the beginning, especially in high schools, by those teachers who already taught the subject of computer science in upper school.
For a year now, teachers of other subjects have been able to receive additional training in “digital basic education” via a university course or can prove their qualifications for the subject by crediting corresponding partial qualifications from training or further education. According to the ministry, there are currently over 1,000 participants in this university course across Austria.
From autumn onwards, in all four associations – since the reform of teacher training in 2016/17, secondary school teachers (especially middle school, AHS, BMHS) have been trained together by universities and universities of education (PH) in cross-state associations – “basic digital education and computer science” will be introduced as can be studied in their own subject. According to the Ministry of Education, only a few final approvals are still missing. The first Bachelor graduates are not expected until 2027/28 at the earliest.
In return for the introduction of the new subject, history will no longer be offered at PH Vorarlberg. According to the ministry, the background is that fewer and fewer history teachers are needed in Vorarlberg, while the need for MINT subjects is increasing. Since 2019, the education department has been carrying out a structured needs assessment together with universities, PHs and education administration so that the training by subject fits better with the needs of the schools.
