Overall, 4.4 Percent of All Students Required German Language Support, With the Figure at Nearly 11 Percent in Primary Schools

The number of foreign students in Austria rose again in the 2024/25 school year, up 5.3 percent, while the share of pupils needing special German language support fell slightly, according to the APA news agency. Overall, 4.4 percent of all students required German language support, with the figure at nearly 11 percent in primary schools. A new factsheet from the Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF) shows the share is particularly high among immigrants from Syria, at 35 percent.

Students who fled to Austria in recent years ahead of the Ukraine war also frequently need special support with the language of instruction. Most recently, 27 percent of children and young people with Ukrainian citizenship were classified as "extraordinary students" in the MIKA-D test. Among children and young people from Romania, 17 percent need German language support from the first year of primary school through to the Matura school-leaving exam, with slightly lower shares among students from Turkey (16 percent) and Afghanistan (15 percent).

One in ten children holding a passport from Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia each need German language support. In practice, four out of five "extraordinary students" attend primary school. If only this group were considered, the share of students needing German language support would be correspondingly higher.

By far the most students with major problems in the colloquial language, according to the MIKA-D placement test, are in Vienna. In primary schools there, nearly one in five children needs German language support, while in Upper Austria and Vorarlberg it is one in ten. At the other end of the scale are Carinthia with six percent and Burgenland with five percent.