Austria’s parliament has approved mandatory summer schooling for children with low German levels as part of efforts to boost integration.
Austria’s parliament on Wednesday approved making two weeks of summer schooling mandatory for children with low German levels in a bid to further integration.
The conservative-led Alpine EU member has already introduced special classes, criticised as “ghetto classes”, for children with weak German skills in 2018, where they are taught for several hours a day separately from regular classes.
Now schooling in the last two weeks of the nine-week summer holidays will be mandatory for children with a low level of German, according to legal changes approved by parliament.
The change stands to affect some 49,000 of 1.2 million schoolchildren, according to official statistics, some 26,000 of whom are expected to attend this year in a first phase.
“German is the key to participation,” Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr told parliament before the vote.
BACKGROUND: Could kids in Austria face compulsory kindergarten to improve their German?
Austria’s teachers’ union criticised the measure, arguing that the resources needed for the new classes would better be used to strengthen the existing special classes during the school year.
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Political backdrop
The country of almost 9.2 million people has long attracted immigrants, as well as asylum seekers fleeing war-torn countries.
The anti-immigration far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) topped the last elections in 2024 for the first time ever, but failed to find partners to form a government.