Failed in math

Pupil went to court because of “fives”

Symbolic image(Bild: (c) www.VIENNAREPORT.at)

A teenager received a "fail" in math. She failed the repeat exam. After complaining, she was given another chance, received another "spot" and appealed to the court.

Austria's judges also have to deal with school grades - as the case of a schoolgirl from Salzburg shows. The girl attended class 4C at a compulsory school in the province. But, as it turned out, she was not so good with numbers and formulas: In her final report card for the 2022/23 school year, she got a "five" in math - not good enough.

Also failed the repeat exam
The pupil failed the repeat exam again in September. Consequently, she would have to repeat the eighth grade - the promotion clause could not be applied as she had already achieved a "five" in math in the previous school year.

Judges of the Federal Administrative Court examined(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart)

Just two days after the unsuccessful exam, the teenager lodged a complaint with the Education Directorate. Reasoning: The exam had not been correct. The school authorities then gave the girl another chance: in the form of a board examination. She only just managed a "sufficient" in the written exam, but received a more than clear "insufficient" in the oral exam. The overall result was therefore another grade 5.

High court rules against appeal
The pupil lodged another appeal against this - tenor: this examination was also unsatisfactory. Among other things, she claimed that some of the tasks had not been taught at all and that the exam had been carried out under "great time pressure". It was the Federal Administrative Court's turn to study all the documents and thus also recognized that the young person had even arrived 27 minutes late for the last exam. The other arguments did not hold up either: "In summary, the assessment was right", the court's ruling stated.