Only with this school year were new rules introduced under the title “Semestrated Upper School” (SOST). An amendment to strengthen school autonomy is now bringing about a new turning point: According to the draft assessment by the Ministry of Education, schools should be able to decide on a large part of the concrete design of the upper schools themselves from 2023/24, the long-announced mandatory system changeover will not come.Vienna.
The first school trials for the “modular upper school” (MOST) and the “new upper school with increased individualisation” (NOVI) have been running since 2005/06; in 2017/18 the model of a new upper school (NOST) developed by the Ministry of Education should be introduced across the board. However, the reform was repeatedly postponed – also under pressure from parents, teachers and student representatives. From 2023/24, all middle and high schools should actually switch to the variant of the ministry, now called “Semestrated Upper School” (SOST).
modules per semester
The special thing about the new upper level: In this case, the entire school year is no longer used as the assessment period, instead, from the 2nd grade of the vocational middle and higher schools (BMHS) or the 6th grade AHS, the learning material is divided into one-semester modules divided. If the grade in a subject is negative, the whole class does not have to be repeated, but only the respective module has to be passed with a “semester examination”. In the latest version, the “Semestrated Upper School”, the rules for repairing fives were tightened, among other things.
Freedom of choice for schools and students
According to the draft assessment, however, the proposed amendment should bring more freedom of choice, for both schools and young people: the mandatory switch to the “Semestrated Upper School” falls. Instead, the school administration and school community committee should be able to decide whether they should run a semester or the well-known year-round upper school from the 6th grade (AHS) or 2nd grade (BMHS/vocational middle and higher schools) at their location. The Ministry of Education justifies this with the fact that some schools were skeptical about the system change or that the previous system was preferred. “In the sense of practiced school autonomy”, the locations are now given the choice.
According to the draft, the school trials for MOST and NOVI, as well as alternative forms of teaching and learning, are to be transferred to mainstream schools. The schools can therefore decide autonomously to use these models. Accordingly, the amendment provides that the schools can independently offer alternative compulsory subjects (primarily compulsory elective subjects) that can be selected by semester or teaching year. At the same time, they should be given the opportunity to reduce the number of hours for individual subjects to a specified minimum. Schools can use it to set up a course or elective module system for their students – as has already been tested in the MOST or NOVI.
“Independence” and “Self-Organization Skills”
The pupils should in turn be encouraged in their “independence” and “self-organization skills” by – if their location has decided to do so – by exchanging teaching objects, (in the sense of promoting talent) preferring objects from higher semesters or (to improve a ” Not enough” from a lower semester) can repeat. If you were not assessed or assessed negatively, it should be possible to replace compulsory electives with a similar compulsory elective. As part of the course system, students should also be able to register themselves for remedial teaching.
Up to 20 percent of the teaching units can be chosen
Overall, the planned changes in the AHS should make it possible to choose up to 20 percent of the teaching units; according to the documents for the draft assessment, it is currently eight percent. According to teacher union representative Roland Gangl (FCG), this option is not so relevant at the BMHS. There are already relatively few hours in the general subjects and little leeway in specialist theory and practice because of the professional qualifications.
In order to be able to implement a course system in a meaningful way that can be set up both at the semester-long and at the year-round upper school, the end of the first semester should be brought forward from the school year 2022/23 in final classes or years such as the Matura year, so that both semesters are the same length. For those schools that opt for the regulations from the school trials for NOVI and MOST, changes to the semester reports are also necessary: If a school level is repeated, all positive grades are retained in this case (in the “Semestrated Upper School” only from the grade “satisfactory”). It is also noted there if students repeat individual compulsory subjects instead of correcting their “insufficient” in a selective examination.
Source: Nachrichten
