School autonomous days

Autonomous school days are teaching- free days in the education system in Austria , which are set by the individual schools within the framework of school autonomy . There are currently five in secondary and four in compulsory schools . They can be used uniformly at the level of the federal states, for individual types of schools, individual schools, individual school levels or individual classes of a school level.

In April 2009 it was decided to abolish it with the 2010/11 school year and to replace it with two voluntary support days .

function

The school-autonomous days were introduced with the educational reform of the 1980s instead of the director's days as working days for teachers with no teaching obligation.

For federal schools ( high schools ) applies § 2 Abs. 5 School Periods Act 1985:

"For school or other public events, the class or school forum or the school community committee can declare a maximum of five days in each teaching year free of school. Furthermore, the school authority of the first instance can, in special cases of school or other public life, declare another day free by ordinance. "

Two of these days have been declared school-free since 2007 by the school authority of the first instance (the federal states ) "for public practice schools as well as for those general secondary schools with lower and upper grades at which Saturday is school-free for all classes and school levels".

For compulsory schools , Section 5 (5) of the Schulzeitgesetz applies to the principles of elementary, secondary, special schools and polytechnic schools

"In addition, up to four days of school or other public events and, in special cases, up to two additional days can be declared free of school in each teaching year."

These days are regulated by the implementing laws of the federal states.

Since the 1995 amendment to the School Hours Act, the function of the school-autonomous days has been "school-related events", such as teacher training (SCHILF events, school-internal teacher training), working meetings of school partners for quality assurance or location-based school development , team meetings, planning of (project) lessons, "Pedagogical days", the presentation of a school project or something similar. Before 1995, the days were expressly only to be used for parenting days and conferences ( grading conferences , educational conferences). The approval of a school day between non-teaching days (“Zwickeltag”) can also be decided by the school, class forum or school community committee - in the sense of the passage “public life”.

The twentieth day rule

In everyday practice, the second concern predominates; the days are generally used to form extended weekends and short breaks outside of the ministerial school holidays (such as autumn holidays ). This only became possible after the amendment to the law in 2007; before that, Section 2, Paragraph 5 had expressly declared that “a release by the school authorities for the reason that a school day falls between non-teaching days” is not permitted.

At the time, this new regulation was welcomed by child psychologists, who see it as valuable regeneration periods for the students, but also judged it critically because parents whose children are enrolled in different schools can no longer take vacation and instead have problems with childcare. This was countered with the nationwide uniform definition of two of the four or five days.

Discuss the abolition in 2009

During the budget negotiations for 2009/10, Education Minister Dr. On April 21, 2009 Claudia Schmied insisted on the union's offer to forego the school-autonomous days instead of the planned additional two lessons. These were also previously paid working hours; a saving effect through this measure is not seen.

Minister Schmied pointed out that this would meet the demands for improved education that the students had made in an Austria-wide demonstration that day. However, this regulation is vehemently rejected by parents and students. Concerns have also been expressed by the tourism industry: the tour operators have adapted their offers to the changed travel habits and are now also making special offers for the short holidays of families, which are made possible by the practice of the school-independent days. These would now - especially in the off-season - cease to exist, the Austrian Hotel Association speaks of € 37 million added value minus for every day on which there is no domestic tourism at all. Fears were expressed that many pupils - again as before the relevant regulation - would be absent from classes on grueling days by parental excuse , and that regular classes would not be possible on these days anyway.

Dr. Schmied announced that he would work up the question again with the involvement of the school partners and parliament , and two days later negotiated with the federal school spokesman Nico Marchetti ( student union ), the two state-regulated five days, namely on the Fridays after the holidays of Ascension and Corpus Christi , to be set up as voluntary support days in which students are free to appear for class (or parents to allow them) - the other three days are class. Another student demonstration, announced for the following Friday, took place with 60,000 students in several capital cities and demanded a complete withdrawal. Minister Schmied referred any new regulation to parliament.

The new regulation will only come into force in the 2010/11 school year. Including all five days of instruction, Austria, with 185 school days per school year, is exactly in line with the OECD average - with 184 days in compulsory schools just below that.

See also

• Moving vacation days

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bgbl. No. 467/1995
2. ↑ Susanne Feigl, technical advice: Christine Kisser, Gerhard Münster, Erich Rochel, Angelika Schneider: School autonomy . In: bm: bwk (ed.): Information sheets on school law . Part 4, April 2000, 2.7.2. Non-teaching days , p. 52 ( pdf , bmukk.gv.at).
3. ↑ Erwin Rauscher: The school times. (No longer available online.) In: Schulautonomie Handbuch. bm: ukk , p. 5.10 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 22, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Helmut Schlisselberger: Offers without real savings . In: Salzburger Nachrichten . April 21, 2009, Domestic Policy, p. 2 ( article archive ).
5. ↑ 282 dB (XXIII. GP) - School Time Act 1985; Modification. In: Parliamentary events> National Council - XXIII. GP> I of the side dishes. Parliament of the Republic of Austria , accessed on April 22, 2009 ( short version prepared by the press service on November 6, 2007: No. 816/2007 ). 
6. ↑ School Time Act 1985; Change - text comparison. Parliament of the Republic of Austria, accessed on April 22, 2009 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b} Agreement at the very last minute . In: Salzburger Nachrichten . April 21, 2009, Domestic Policy, p. 2 ( article archive ).
8. ↑ ^{a b} Martin Arbeiter: Resistance to alibi action in school . In: Salzburger Nachrichten . April 22, 2009, p. 1 ( article archive ).
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Parents, students, business: everyone wants to be free from school . In: Salzburger Nachrichten . April 22, 2009, p. 1 ( article archive ).
10. ↑ ^{a b} Two days for funding . In: Salzburger Nachrichten . April 24, 2009, Domestic Policy, p. 2 ( article archive ).
11. ↑ Thousands of students protested: student representatives satisfied. In: Politics> Domestic Policy. OÖN , April 24, 2009, accessed April 25, 2009 . 
12. ↑ Susanne Schnabl: School dispute - parents: school attendance must not be a request concert. (No longer available online.) In: Ö1 Mittagsjournal Inland. ORF Ö1 Inforadio, April 24, 2009, formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 25, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.