Austria’s parliament on Wednesday, January 21st approved making two weeks of summer schooling mandatory for children with low-level German skills in a bid to further integration.
The country has already introduced special classes for children who spoke little German in 2018, where they are taught for several hours a day separately from regular classes.
Now schooling in the last two weeks of the nine-week summer holidays will be mandatory for children with a low level of German, according to legal changes approved by parliament.
The change stands to affect some 49,000 of 1.2 million schoolchildren, according to official statistics, some 26,000 of whom are expected to attend this year in a first phase.
“German is the key to participation,” Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr told parliament before the vote.
