At 10 a.m., the students gathered at Linz’s main square with their posters – “I want to have a say” was written in large letters. “We are the students who have been in distance learning the longest of all. This is a time that we will never be able to catch up with,” says Mara Mittermayr, AHS state school representative and chairwoman of the SP-related action of critical students (AKS). After Minister of Education Martin Polaschek (VP) announced that the oral Matura is again mandatory for all high school graduates, the pressure is now increasing extremely, according to the student representatives. Even with support courses, this cannot be reduced.
Around 250 participants walked peacefully from the main square over the Nibelungen Bridge in the morning – their destination: the education department. “We are still being ignored by the education department, it must not go on like this,” says Tobias Part, deputy head boy from the BRG Hamerling in Linz. “The last eight years must not have been in vain, we have already proven what we have learned. We therefore demand that the annual average of the last two classes be used for the base grade of the Matura. That would significantly reduce the pressure to perform for the students.”
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Originally, the demonstrators wanted to make themselves heard in front of the building of the Upper Austria Education Directorate Alfred Klampfer. According to police city commander Karl Pogutter, however, this was forbidden by the education department because it is private property. At around 11:30 a.m., the students ended their demonstration on the main deck of Ars Electronica.
Education director Alfred Klampfer reacted to today’s student demonstration with a written statement: “I know that the last school years were by no means easy, neither for the teachers nor for the students. The educators will take this into account and adapt the subject areas for the oral matriculation and diploma examination accordingly. In addition, remedial and supplementary classes will also be offered in the summer semester and shortly before the matriculation and diploma examinations in order to be able to provide the best possible support for the preparations. The concerns of the students are a matter of personal concern to me, which is why I am in constant contact with the state student representatives.”
Video: In Vienna, too, students protested against the Matura
Source: Nachrichten
