A grammar school in Vienna’s Donaustadt district now includes the religious affiliation of its students as a decisive factor in class composition. This was reported by a concerned mother in the “Krone”. She had heard rumors that the classes in the lower school, which will be run as a new middle school, would be sorted according to religion and confronted the director of the high school on the open day.
The director confirmed the procedure to the mother. The sorting of the classes is necessary for administrative reasons, but other factors are also decisive. Religion teachers would teach at several schools, students without a confession would have to be cared for together.
The mother expressed her incomprehension to the “Krone”: “I don’t think that’s right. A social, linguistic and religious mix in a class is important.” It cannot be that a single subject determines the composition of the class. The school management, to which the concerned mother turned, denies any discrimination and strict separation and points out that the first languages and gender of the children also play a role.
