A quarter of 4- and 5-year-olds need German support in kindergarten

After schools, kindergartens have also recently warned of a lack of space and excessive demands. They have been struggling with a shortage of staff for some time, and according to Statistics Austria, the proportion of children whose first language is not German was already almost 59 percent in 2022/23. Nationwide, it was a third, and more than a quarter of four- and five-year-olds needed German support.

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Specifically, at the beginning of the 2022/23 kindergarten year, 29 percent of four- and five-year-old kindergarten children (50,800 children) were found to need support in the German language – regardless of whether the child speaks German or another language in the family. After all, a different first language does not per se say anything about how well the child speaks German. By the end of the kindergarten year, 23 percent (39,300) still needed support in German. In contrast, the proportion of children with an age-appropriate language level rose from 71 to 77 percent over the course of the kindergarten year. However, this still means that around one in four children begins their school career with problems in the language of instruction, German.

“Red alert”

The “Startklar” association, which specializes in language education and offers German lessons in kindergartens and schools in Vienna and Lower Austria in the afternoons, is on “red alert” due to the latest developments with family reunification. “It is the right of children to have the opportunity to learn German at first language level,” said executive director Janine Fischer to the APA. However, under the current conditions, many children’s educational opportunities are falling by the wayside, she warned, and called on politicians to take action. Specifically, additional language support measures for kindergartens must be financed and language-sensitive work established as a cross-cutting issue in the education sector. In addition, language levels in the children’s first languages ​​should also be assessed.

In kindergartens, however, the use of external support staff, as has recently been increased in places like Vienna, is not welcomed everywhere. “Relationships instead of external support staff” was the slogan of the kindergarten platform Educare, for example, and instead called for more funding for teaching staff in elementary educational institutions. Language support should be seamlessly integrated into children’s everyday lives; separate language support programs are not advisable, says Educare. The Network for Elementary Education in Austria (NEBÖ) is also critical of external language staff.