Image: (APA/EVA MANHART)
They should be based on the curricula of elementary and middle schools, which are also being renewed, the Ministry of Education said on request. The basics of the current special school curriculum date back to the 1960s.
Start in the school year 2023/24
In the school year 2023/24, the introduction of new curricula for elementary and middle school as well as AHS lower level will start “rolling” with the 1st or 5th grade, according to the Ministry of Education. Among other things, subject content and didactic principles are to be modernized and interdisciplinary teaching with the introduction of overarching topics is to be anchored in a binding manner. The textbooks are also being completely reissued, and the training, further education and further training of teachers is being further developed.
Around 29,850 pupils with special educational needs are (as of 2021/22) being taught at least partly according to the special school curriculum in special school classes or inclusively in regular schools or at special schools. For them, too, the new curricula will form the basis for content in the future. The special education area is thus adapted to the curricula of elementary school, middle school or AHS lower level. The modernization should combine the same learning content with appropriately adapted complexity requirements as well as the didactic principles of elementary school and middle school with more flexible support priorities.
Four funding priorities
The four support areas vision/blindness, hearing/communication, motor skills/movement and emotional-social development are offered. A separate curriculum is being developed for pupils with special educational needs in the area of social-cognitive development.
Children with impairments or disabilities would of course receive additional support and learn at a different pace and with different methods, Green education spokeswoman Sibylle Hamann also welcomed the changes in the Ö1 “Morgenjournal”. “But basically they deal with the same content and topics as all other children.” Hamann also calls for the topic of inclusive teaching to be firmly anchored in the training and further education of educators.
preparatory work in progress
According to the ministry, the preparatory work for the curricula, involving experts, has been taking place for months. In the 2023/24 school year, content creation and legal implementation are planned, and other stakeholders, experts, practitioners and professors from universities and teacher training colleges would be involved. In 2024/2025, the textbooks are to be adapted and further training courses for teachers are to be offered, and in 2025/2026 the implementation of the modernized curricula at the school locations will begin.
Source: Nachrichten
