Another slight plus

The school year begins for 98,000 Taferlklassler

The new school year, which starts on Monday in eastern Austria and a week later in the other federal provinces, will once again bring more pupils.(Bild: APA/dpa/Christoph Reichwein)

The new school year began on Monday for half a million pupils in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. Among them are more than 42,000 Taferlklassler, who are sitting in a classroom for the first time.

 In contrast, children and young people in the other federal states still have a week's vacation. According to an estimate by Statistics Austria, a total of 98,000 children will experience their first lesson at elementary school this year, which corresponds to an increase of 0.6 percent compared to the previous year. Overall, the number of pupils will grow by 0.9 percent to 1.16 million.

In Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, 508,000 children and young people started school on Monday, with 42,500 primary school pupils in these three federal states taking their first seat in the classroom.

The new school year, which started on Monday in Eastern Austria and a week later in the other provinces, will once again bring more Taferlklass pupils.(Bild: APA/dpa/Christoph Reichwein)

On September 9th, the 656,000 pupils in Carinthia, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol and Vorarlberg - including 55,500 Taferlklassler - will also come to the end of their vacations or kindergarten years.

As in the previous school year, an increase of 1.7 percent in the number of pupils is expected at elementary school, with an equally large increase in the number of pupils at local secondary schools.

Number of vocational schools remains the same
An increase of 0.5 percent is estimated for special schools and three percent for polytechnic schools. An increase of 0.4 percent is expected at AHS schools and a decrease of 0.4 percent at vocational middle and high schools (BMHS). However, the number of pupils at vocational schools is expected to remain the same.