Vienna focuses on education: Mandatory summer school for better German skills!

Vienna focuses on education: Mandatory summer school for better German skills!

A lot is happening in the education sector in Vienna! From autumn 2026, a mandatory summer school for children with a lack of German language skills will be introduced. The city decided to do this as part of its education reform to create better educational opportunities for everyone. These measures are particularly necessary in urban districts like Meidling, where the need for integration and language support is particularly high. Vienna not only bears the brunt of integration, but also responds to the challenges that teachers experience every day in the classroom. These often reach their limits when it comes to doing justice to children with insufficient knowledge of German, according to the analysis by wien.neos.eu.

Bettina Emmerling, Vienna's deputy mayor and city councilor for education, describes the introduction of the summer school as an educational policy milestone. “These changes will create unprecedented opportunities for our youngest children,” says Emmerling, who has been campaigning for more language support for years. Their efforts have contributed to raising public awareness of the issue of education policy. Since 2022, the City of Vienna has continuously expanded the German learning offerings in the summer. This year the places for the summer German courses were fully booked, which shows the high demand. Children should be given fair starting conditions to make the transition from kindergarten to school easier. “Sufficient language skills are the key to a self-determined life,” emphasizes Emmerling.

Measures to promote language

The political wind is blowing in a new direction. The new Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr has numerous reforms on the agenda. These range from the targeted support of children and young people to innovative reforms to strengthen school autonomy. According to meinkreis.at, the measures are aimed at comprehensive language support. A climate change in education, which, however, also requires clear financial impulses: 120 million euros are being made available to promote language development and modern pedagogy.

A central element of these reforms is the introduction of compulsory summer schools for students with insufficient knowledge of German, which are determined through central testing. It is precisely through such measures that many things are turned upside down: parents who do not cooperate with the schools have to expect social work interventions and financial sanctions. The expansion of all-day schools has also been accelerated, with 50 new all-day schools having opened in Vienna in the last five years.

A contribution to equal opportunities

Such reform-oriented approaches are more than just changes; they are a step towards equal opportunities for all children in Vienna. The city does everything it can to ensure that children have the best conditions for their educational career right from the start. Both the city and the Ministry of Education underline the importance of these commitments by introducing the subject “democracy education” and using modern technologies in teaching. It is time to rethink the education sector in Vienna and to anchor innovations in the curricula.

Overall, everyone involved checks whether the measures actually achieve the desired effect. Education is a complex topic where everyone has to pull together. So Vienna has a lot planned - and one can only hope that the changes contribute to the well-being of all children and young people in the city.