Indicator history

Only at the level of compulsory schools, language training in the child’s mother tongue is provided all over Austria since 1992/93. All pupils with a different first language than German are eligible to attend courses in different languages. In primary schools, special schools and lower secondary schools, mother-tongue-courses are provided as optional exercises and free subjects up to six hours per week. Statistically, Turkish  (13.961 pupils or 46.8%) and BKS (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian – 10.870 pupils - 36.5%) are the most widely spoken (first) languages and account for more than 80% (24,831 in total) of all pupils attending one of these two mother tongue language courses.

According to the third state report of Austria about the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM), the positive trend concerning the registration of children for lessons in Slovenian language has continued in Carinthia. In the school year 2009/2010, 1,831 children (41.27 per cent) were registered for bilingual lessons in elementary schools. Additionally, 185 pupils attended bilingual lessons in two elementary schools in Klagenfurt which increases the total number of children attending bilingual lessons to 2,016. In the last two years, the number of pupils attending lessons in Slovenian has remained steady: in the school year 2008/09, 1,853 children (41.12 per cent) were registered for bilingual courses and 190 pupils attended bilingual lessons in two elementary schools in Klagenfurt. In secondary schools, 1,550 pupils attended lessons in Slovenian language in 2009/2010.        

In the autochthonous settlement area of the national minorities in the Burgenland, the children – nearly without exception – attend bilingual lessons in Hungarian as well as in Croatian.  In the school year 2009/2010, 2,143 pupils in compulsory schools and secondary schools were registered for lessons in Croatian and 2,717 pupils in compulsory schools and secondary schools were registered for lessons in Hungarian. Only five children in the compulsory school system attended lessons in Romanian.

Schoolbooks and teaching material in the languages of the national minorities are regularly updated and advanced. In doing so, the Federal Chancellery seeks to cooperate with scientific institutes at Austrian universities and associations of national minorities. An example is the education service of the Burgenland which provides didactic material for bilingual instruction. Furthermore, the publication of a new schoolbook in Slovak (“Slovencslovo za slovom”) is mentioned. The Landesschulräte [Federal Education Authorities] are regularly carrying out enquiries to measure the degree of satisfaction of the teachers with the bilingual schoolbooks and teaching material.

Sources: http://www.bka.gv.at/DocView.axd?CobId=42120; http://www.bmukk.gv.at/medienpool/6416/nr1_10.pdf