The situation at schools in Vienna is growing worse and worse due to mass immigration, which has resulted in an immense number of immigrant children, reports Austria’s Kronen Zeitung.
A recent survey conducted by the local teachers’ union at some of Vienna’s 100 compulsory schools reveals not only systematic issues like language barriers, but also extreme incidents, including assaults on teachers, situations where parents of schoolchildren asked a teacher to wear a burqa, and even the presence of mock executions.
One middle school headmistress spoke to the paper about the ongoing problems but said she had to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisals.
There are always difficulties, especially with Syrian families, the headmistress said, adding that most of them don’t speak any German at all. Between 80 and 85 percent of the more than 800 students at her school do not speak German as their mother tongue. Immigration has always existed, but this is something completely different now.
The Arab communities are a real challenge for us at the moment,” she said.
A video interpreter is also required for every conversation with parents, although the education ministry could give no exact figures for this expense.
As Remix News previously reported, around 70 percent of school-age children in Vienna do not speak German in their everyday life, and 39 percent do not have Austrian citizenship. Approximately 30 percent of all of them are Muslims. The chaos has led Vienna’s teachers to quit “in droves.”
In the teachers’ survey, one 13-year-old boy has been particularly problematic, showing 10-year-old classmates pornographic content on his phone, and even verbally abusing and physically attacking a teacher. He has just been suspended for the third time in four weeks.
“The school is getting worse and worse,” says the headmistress.
The issues are extensive: Children acting out executions in the classroom; one teacher forbidding reading from the Bible out of consideration for those of other faiths; a mother who gave her child’s teacher a burqa to wear; classrooms becoming unruly if a story contains a pig or a rainbow.
If a teacher reports any of this, they are often heavily criticized and called “liars,” leading many to remain silent, as the fear of reprisals from parents and even their own ranks is too great.
However, some have spoken out, such as Floridsdorf school principal Christian Klar and “Krone” columnist Susanne Wiesinger. Klar, who has written a book on the problems teachers are facing, said: “We need rules and must have the courage to separate those who disrupt the system from regular schools. And it is not just a question of violence. A large proportion of children do not meet the criteria for school readiness. Many cannot tie their shoes or hold a pen.”
The issue is not unique to Austria either. Remix News has also published the account of one German teacher who described her school as “hell,” due to its nearly 90 percent immigration population. She described sexism, sexual harassment, beatings, and
