Austria EDUCATION
Figure 8. Structure of the Education System, 1993
Source: Based on information from Austria, Federal Press Service,
Austria: Facts and Figures, Vienna, 1990, 119.
Austria has a free and public school system, and nine years
of education are mandatory. Schools offer a series of vocational-
technical and university preparatory tracks involving one to
three additional years of education beyond the minimum mandatory
level (see
table 5, Appendix). The legal basis for primary and
secondary education in Austria is the School Law of 1962. The
federal Ministry for Education is responsible for funding and
supervising primary and secondary education, which is
administered on the provincial level by the authorities of the
respective provinces.
The country's university system is also free. The General
Law for University Education of 1966 and the University
Organization Law of 1975 provide the legal framework for tertiary
education, and the federal Ministry for Science and Research
funds and oversees education at the university level. Twelve
universities and six academies of music and art enjoy a high
degree of autonomy and offer a full spectrum of degree programs.
Established in 1365, the University of Vienna is Austria's oldest
and largest university.
Federal legislation played a prominent role in the education
system, and laws dealing with education effectively have a
constitutional status because they can be passed or amended only
by a two-thirds majority in parliament. For this reason,
agreement between the ÖVP and the SPÖ is needed to pass or amend
legislation relating to education.
Private schools that provide primary and secondary education
and some teacher training are run mainly by the Roman Catholic
Church and account for approximately 10 percent of the 6,800
schools and 120,000 teachers. Roman Catholic schools have a
reputation for more discipline and rigor than public
institutions, and some are considered elite institutions. Because
there is no tradition of private university education in Austria,
the state has a virtual monopoly on higher education.
The history of the Austrian education system since World War
II may be characterized as an attempt to transform higher
education from a traditional entitlement of the upper social
classes to an equal opportunity for all social classes. Before
the School Law of 1962, Austria had a "two-track" education
system. After four years of compulsory primary education from the
ages of six to ten in the elementary school, or
Volksschule (pl., Volksschulen), children and their
parents had to choose between the compulsory secondary level for
eleven- to fourteen-year-olds called the middle school, or
Hauptschule (pl., Hauptschulen), or the first four
years of an eight-year university preparatory track at higher
schools of general education (Allgemeinbildende Höhere Schulen--
AHS). AHS is an umbrella term used to describe institutions
providing different fields of specialization that grant the
diploma (Reifeprüfung or Matura) needed to enter
university.
Before the 1962 reform, the great majority of children--more
than 90 percent--attended the compulsory Hauptschule,
where they were divided according to their performance in
elementary school into two groups: an "A group," which was
directed toward two- to four-year vocational-technical training
schools after graduation from the Hauptschule; and a "B
group," which was required to complete one additional year of
compulsory education before entrance into apprenticeship programs
or the work force. The remaining elementary-school graduates--
less than 10 percent--enrolled in the AHS at age eleven. Children
attending these university-track schools also had to choose a
specific course of study.
The rigidity of the two-track system required that the most
important educational decision in a child's life--with all of he
implications it had for the future--be made at the age of ten.
The decision depended to a great extent on the parents'
background, income, and social status. Children from agricultural
backgrounds or of urban working-class parents generally attended
the Volkschule and the Hauptschule and then entered
the work force. Children having lower-middle-class backgrounds
frequently received vocational-technical training after the
Hauptschule, while children from the upper-middle and
upper classes, boys in particular, attended the AHS, which gave
them access to university-level education.
The early selection process meant that children of the
largest segment of the population, farmers and workers, were
grossly underrepresented at higher schools and universities,
whereas the children of a relatively small segment of the
population, those who had attended higher schools or the
universities, were overrepresented. Consequently, the education
system tended to reproduce or to reinforce traditional social
structures instead of being a vehicle of opportunity or social
mobility.
The School Law of 1962 and subsequent amendments require that
all state-funded schools be open to children regardless of birth,
gender, race, status, class, language, or religion. The law also
attempts to introduce more flexibility into the traditional two-
track system and to provide students with a greater degree of
latitude within it so that educational (and hence career)
decisions can be made at an older age. Although the primary and
secondary school system continues to be fundamentally based on
the two-track idea, after a series of reforms in the 1970s and
1980s, ten- to fourteen-year-olds are no longer streamed into A
and B groups in the Hauptschule. Graduates of this kind of
school also have the opportunity to cross over into certain
branches of the AHS track at the age of fourteen or to attend a
series of different "higher vocational-technical schools"
(Berufsbildende Höhere Schulen and Höhere Technische
Lehranstalten), which have five-year programs of
specialization
(see
fig. 8).
Shifts in enrollment patterns reflect these changes in the
school system. In the mid-1960s, less than 10 percent of all
students finished the university preparatory AHS track, and more
than 66 percent of them were male. By the early 1990s, more than
30 percent of all students finished the AHS track and just above
50 percent of them were female. Furthermore, a second educational
path was developed that permitted some students without a diploma
from the university-track AHS to enroll in a university.
As a general rule, the quality of Hauptschule
education is high especially in rural areas and small communities
where the schools have maintained their traditional social
importance and where attendance at an AHS involves commuting
considerable distances, or, for the inhabitants of more remote
areas, boarding. In urban centers with a full spectrum of
educational opportunities, the Hauptschule has become less
popular, and parents who earlier would not have enrolled their
children in an AHS have begun doing so. The increased enrollments
have overburdened the AHS and created a shortage of students at
the Hauptschulen and at vocational-technical schools (see
table 6, Appendix).
In some areas, this trend has been strengthened by the number
of children of foreign workers in the compulsory schools. In
1991, for example, almost 30 percent of school-age children in
Vienna were the children of foreign workers. In some districts of
the city, these children exceeded 70 percent. Although the
children of long-term foreign workers frequently speak German
well, the numbers of classes in which students with inadequate
mastery of German are overrepresented has overburdened the
Hauptschule system and made it a less desirable
alternative than in the past. Therefore, special remedial and
intercultural programs are being developed so that the compulsory
school system in Austria can continue to fulfill its educational
and social roles.
The SPÖ has continued to press for further reforms of the
school system. It argued for an abolition of the two-track system
for ten- to fourteen-year-olds and for combining the
Hauptschule and the first four years of the AHS into a new
comprehensive middle school. As of 1993, however, because of the
resistance of other political parties, this alternative has been
limited to a number of experimental schools.
As a result of the reforms since the 1960s, the university
system has changed from one serving the elite to one serving the
masses. The increasing number of students at Austrian
universities reflects the liberalization of educational policy at
secondary and higher levels. Between the 1955-56 and 1991-92
academic years, the number of students enrolled in institutions
of higher education increased from about 19,000 to more than
200,000 (see
table 7, Appendix). The number of students beginning
university-level education after having completed the AHS program
also increased and amounted to 85 percent in 1990, compared with
60 percent in the mid-1960s.
The reforms have also meant that university education ceased
to be a male privilege. Between the 1960-61 and 1991-92 academic
years, the number of female students enrolling in universities
rose from 23 to 44 percent. Yet, although women account for
almost half of the students at university level, only 2 percent
of the professors at institutions of higher learning were women
in 1990.
Despite the increase in the numbers of university students
and the greater presence of women, universities remain primarily
the domain of middle- and higher-income groups. The number of
students with working-class backgrounds has doubled from 7 to 14
percent, and the number of these with agricultural backgrounds
increased from less than 2 percent to more than 4 percent between
1960 and 1990. But children of white-collar workers, civil
servants, and the self-employed accounted for more than 80
percent of enrollments at Austrian institutions of higher
education in the early 1990s.
Increased accessibility to university-level education has a
number of consequences. The dramatic expansion in the number of
students led to overcrowding at many institutions. Some critics
maintain that the increasing number of students diminishes the
overall quality of university-level education despite increases
in federal investment. One obvious problem was that more than 50
percent of students enrolled at the universities in the 1980s did
not successfully complete a degree program. Complex reasons
account for this high drop-out rate. Some students enroll simply
to acquire student benefits. Others study for the sake of
personal enrichment without intending to get a degree. Some are
unable to complete their studies for financial reasons. Although
a university degree provides students with a substantial amount
of social status and better income opportunities, there has been
an increase in "academic unemployment," especially among degree-
holders in the humanities and social sciences.
Debates about educational policy in Austria frequently are
the result of different perspectives related to the strengths and
weaknesses of the traditional education system. Proponents of the
two-track secondary system, for example, defend it as performance
oriented and criticize the leveling of achievement or lowering of
standards the introduction of one compulsory middle school would
involve. Conversely, opponents of the two-track system criticize
its rigidity and inherent absence of equal opportunity.
Consequently, such bipolar terms as performance and
leveling, elite and mass education, and
achievement and equal opportunity prevail in
educational debates. In some respects, Austrians of different
political and educational policy persuasions may expect too many
different things from one university system. They expect it to
provide general education, as do state university systems in the
United States, and "Ivy League" performance at the same time.
Data as of December 1993
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