Only a few teachers specialize in inclusion

Specifically, according to the recent response to a parliamentary question from the Green Party by NEOS Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr, of the nearly 1,400 bachelor's degree graduates in primary schools in the 2022/23 academic year, 17 percent chose inclusion as a major. Among the approximately 660 master's graduates, the figure was just under six percent. In teacher training for secondary education (primarily middle schools, AHS, and vocational middle and higher schools/BMHS), the proportions were even lower: Among the nearly 1,950 bachelor's graduates, just under five percent had a specialization in inclusion, and among the 910 master's graduates, just two.

Over the past ten years, the teachers' union has regularly pushed for the reintroduction of a separate special education teacher training program, arguing that the new curriculum structure would further exacerbate the staff shortage at special education schools. Wiederkehr's predecessor, Martin Polaschek (ÖVP), then chairman of the Teaching Forum of the University Conference (uniko) and one of the co-authors of the 2015 reform, also advocated for this the previous year. Polaschek stated that, in his view, the abolition had not been successful.

The government program of the ÖVP, SPÖ, and NEOS now includes plans for the introduction of a mandatory module in inclusive education for all teacher training students in the education chapter. The program also aims to introduce "a separate teacher training program for inclusion and special education."

Schnider: "Inclusive models good"

However, the Quality Assurance Council (QSR), which is also responsible for overseeing the current reform of teacher training, has little support for this idea. The new elementary school curricula, which will take effect this fall, do not include any steps toward a separate special education teacher training program. "I believe that the inclusive and integrative models are very good," emphasized QSR director Andreas Schnider in a recent interview with APA. After all, schools are also moving away from separate special education schools toward inclusive settings where children with and without disabilities are taught together.

In terms of quality, primary and secondary education with a focus or specialization is superior to previous training, and the scope of teacher training courses on inclusion has even increased. "Previously, it was divided into separate cohorts, and you had the impression that it was a completely separate training program. But that wasn't the case." To meet the demand for specialized staff for children with special educational needs (SEN), there are now a growing number of people with related training, such as educational sciences, and many years of experience in the field of inclusion, who are coming to schools through the new career changer program.

29,700 children with special educational needs

According to Statistics Austria, around 29,700 children and young people were recently certified as having a special educational need (SEN) due to a physical or mental disability (2023/24), representing 4.8 percent of all children in compulsory schools (primary, middle, special, and pre-primary schools). Boys and students who do not speak German in their daily lives are more strongly represented, according to the response to the inquiry.

As current statistics show, there continue to be significant differences between the federal states. While in Tyrol, 2.5 percent of compulsory school students had special needs, the proportion was more than twice as high in other federal states. The type of schooling also varies greatly from state to state: While in Styria, 84 percent of special needs students were taught in an integrated setting—that is, together with children without disabilities—in Vienna, for example, the figure was less than half.