School crisis: Director warns of dangers for our children!

School crisis: Director warns of dangers for our children!

In a mixed school year, many educational institutions face major challenges. Christian Klar, director of the Franz Jonas European School in Vienna Floridsdorf, has published a new book on these topics. Entitled “How do we save our children’s future?” he addresses current problems that are affecting schools. He had previously written in his work “What’s going on in our schools?” reported on violence and radicalization in the classroom. The new volume particularly addresses the German deficit and the increasing “culture war” in the classroom, which is encouraged by the high number of newly immigrated students who often can barely speak German when they start school.

In his book, Klar describes numerous incidents from his students' everyday school life, including violence and disrespectful behavior from parents towards teachers. These problems appear to be related to increasing migration numbers. Educational studies show that a high number of newly immigrated families - a trend that has continued since conflicts in crisis regions such as the Yugoslav war in the 1990s - in schools represents an additional burden on the existing system. Against this background, the question is often raised as to how these children and young people can be successfully integrated into the education system if some of them are only accommodated in a school months after their arrival.

Integration and educational challenges

Klar also pays particular attention to the circumstances under which many students begin their school careers. Migrant children are often assigned to secondary schools and often leave them without a qualification - a situation that is perpetuated by inadequate integration. According to the Federal Agency for Civic Education, around 1.6 million students in Germany have foreign citizenship in the 2022/2023 school year, which corresponds to an increase of 18 percent compared to the previous year.

Klar also criticizes the so-called youth language that has become established in schools and comes to the remarkable conclusion that not only migrant children, but also Austrian students often only use short sentences. This development makes learning even more difficult. Nevertheless, there are also positive examples of successful integration at his school, which gives hope for solutions.

Demands and solutions

What's next? Klar calls for decisive action from teachers and school management. He suggests creating special classes for “system breakers” – students who find it difficult to integrate – and hopes for an earlier introduction of compulsory schooling through an “elementary class” before primary school. In this way, language deficits could be eliminated at an early stage. Another measure he addresses is the need for religion-neutral schools in which prayer rooms are not set up and the curriculum is not adapted to Islamic needs.

The director exudes optimism that, despite the many alarming reports, positive changes are possible if we start early and recognize the complexity of the challenges. It not only sheds light on the problem, but also offers various solutions to topics such as sex education and gender identity in order to promote holistic education.

The book is partly perceived as politically polemical, but the suggestions it contains for improving the educational situation are urgently needed. Klar shows that schools are not only learning institutions, but also places of integration. Current developments in society, including an increasing shift to the right and less tolerant attitudes, also affect the school world and present teachers and students with particular challenges.