Management dissatisfied

Focus kindergartens: children often not ready for school

70 percent of kindergarten managers surveyed in Austria do not feel that more than half of their children are ready for school. They attribute this to a lack of cognitive, linguistic or social-emotional development.

A research team led by Bernhard Koch (University of Teacher Education Tyrol) has combined surveys of Styrian and Upper Austrian kindergarten managers from 2024 with survey results from Tyrol and Vorarlberg from 2021. The survey looked at kindergartens in which at least every second child has a first language other than German and in which the majority of parents do not have a high level of education.

Despite the label "hotspot nursery school", the managers are satisfied with the working atmosphere. Nine out of ten stated that a culture of integration is practiced in everyday life, for example by singing songs in other languages. At the same time, it is important for three quarters of those surveyed to convey Austrian values and customs.

Work has become more difficult
The staff themselves have been calling for smaller groups and better childcare conditions for years - keyword: staff shortage. Almost six out of ten (59%) head teachers said that working with children from a migrant background had become "more difficult". Some children and their parents had little contact with German-speaking children and their parents, they said. Some parents were also unaware of their own role in learning German.

70 percent of the heads of around 140 kindergartens surveyed stated that they did not have a good feeling about the school readiness of more than half of their children. They were concerned about cognitive, linguistic and social-emotional development. However, school readiness is assessed by elementary school teachers at the time of enrolment.

"It is to be expected that the challenges will increase in many more kindergartens," said study author Koch. His team recommends improving the childcare ratio and mixing children with different first languages more. Children should be able to learn German by the age of three at the latest. There should be more money from the federal government, especially for nursery schools in deprived areas.