Summer vacation at last!

Report cards for 200,000 pupils in Lower Austria

With certificate in hand: two thirds of primary school pupils achieved the AHS maturity level in their final year.

(Bild: Antal Imre)

The summer vacation begins today in the more than 1100 schools between Enns and Leitha. The "Krone" also knows what challenges await children and teachers in the fall.

State Education Councillor Christiane Teschl-Hofmeister began her annual end-of-school review in St. Pölten yesterday with a clear plea for the Matura. The remarkable success of the graduates in particular is proof of the high standard of secondary schools: "That's why we should definitely not abolish this milestone in educational careers!" As reported, 99.3 percent of grammar school pupils in the state passed the written school-leaving examination, with the figures for English and mathematics ranking wafer-thinly behind. A total of 7300 pupils took the Matura in Lower Austria this year.

Two thirds of primary school pupils achieve AHS maturity
Teschl-Hofmeister also highlighted the achievements of the youngest pupils: "Today is a day for all children and their parents to be proud!" A good 62 percent of primary school pupils can now attend a grammar school with their certificate, if they want to. Middle school pupils have also been given a "preference", with a third finishing the year with excellent or good results. However, only 0.9 percent have two or more "fail" grades on their report cards.

The state education councillor and director visited the Allhartsberg elementary school in the Amstetten district before the report card was issued

(Bild: NLK Pfeiffer)

There are more "double and triple failures" in the 63 AHS institutions with 1.9 percent and the 90 BMHS institutions with 3.7 percent. Director of Education Karl Fritthum thanked "his" teachers in particular for their commitment - and was pleased about the great interest in teaching in Lower Austria. Despite a nationwide shortage of teachers and recently around 600 retirements, there were around twice as many interested applicants as vacancies, with a thousand applicants. You don't have to be a geek to work out that: All places filled!

Artificial intelligence brings new hurdles
The Education Minister wants to promote rather than prohibit the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom, which has already been brought to an end by the pre-scientific work. From the 2024/25 school year, there will be 22 AI pilot schools in Lower Austria, and a focus on child protection and crisis management will also be introduced. There will also be summer schools again from August 19 to 30 - at 157 locations for 6800 pupils.