That “is the wrong way,” she said on Thursday at a multilingual reading day at the Brüsslgasse elementary school in Vienna-Ottakring. In today’s globalized world, “every language is an advantage, also for our economy,” emphasized the minister.
Multilingualism and linguistic diversity are an enrichment. “I want to teach the children that they can be proud of their abilities,” emphasized Zadic. In any case, speaking additional languages is “an enrichment – it doesn’t matter whether it’s French, Indian, BKS, Spanish, Arabic or another language”.
The fact that Vienna is one of the most livable cities in the world “also lies with the people who live here,” said Zadic, who saw their participation in the multilingual school event as a “sign of an open and diverse society”. Together with a number of other guests, she read stories in German and BKS at the reading day.
The Standing Conference of the Chairmen of the Austrian National Minority Advisory Councils was outraged by the demand for German to be the “break language”. Spokesman Martin Ivancsics said in a broadcast: “This is a blow to democracy in general and also a frontal attack on the historically grown diversity of the Austrian ethnic groups in particular.” This is “a step backwards in times that no reasonable person would want to experience anymore,” Ivancsics continued. It is “extremely worrying” that the state government is allowing itself to be “the stirrup holder of discrimination against school children”.
In this context, the SprachenRechte network and the Austrian Association for German as a Foreign Language/Second Language demanded that Minister of Education Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) support science and practice in schools and not adopt the FPÖ’s ideology. He should stand behind all students and protect and promote the valuable and natural linguistic diversity at schools throughout Austria, it was emphasized in a broadcast.
The new Lower Austrian ÖVP-FPÖ government wants to enforce German in the schoolyard through the school’s house rules – after Upper Austria’s plan for a direct legal anchoring failed years ago due to concerns from the Federal Chancellery’s constitutional service. However, directors and teachers immediately rejected the Lower Austrian project. They argued that compulsory German cannot be implemented and controlled. They pointed out that the school regulations are drawn up autonomously by the school forum (consisting of parents and teachers) or the school community committee (consisting of pupils, parents and teachers) together with the school management.
