As language skills drop, Austria could extend mandatory kindergarten

"What time is it?" "Ermmmm…." 

Six-year-old Mohamed is one of many Austrians with migrant parents struggling to understand his teacher. "Some are overwhelmed with everything and can't follow," his primary school teacher Marie-Sophie Polay says.

Two years ago, 36 percent of first-graders in Vienna did not speak enough German to follow lessons. Now that has risen to 45 percent, according to official figures.

"I have some kids in class who don't speak German at home and now with kindergarten and school they hear the German language for the first time," Polay says. "I think it's a bit worse than the last years."

While some pupils have recently migrated to Austria from countries such as Ukraine and Syria, most have been living here for a while, raising concerns that some migrant communities aren't integrating. 

Statistics show 60 percent of the children who lack German language skills were born in Vienna and almost all of them attended pre-school child care. 

Will extra kindergarten work?

Concerned that so many reach school age unable to speak the local language, city officials and Austria's new coalition government say extending mandatory kindergarten to two years could be the solution. But experts say the country's pre-school teachers are not adequately trained for today's challenges.

"What we need in pre-school education is more highly qualified pre-school teachers who know how to support the language learning process," Hannes Schweiger, associate professor at University of Vienna, tells CGTN. "There's a lack of pre-school teachers who are proficient in language-learning support."

For many, Austria doesn't just need better trained teachers, but also more of them. Primary school teacher Polay says the government needs to act now: "Teachers are burnt out or quitting the job," she says. "It will be collapsing in some years."

The language situation at schools is also a major recurring topic in Austrian election campaigns. April brings Vienna's municipal elections, and recent polls suggest the migration-critical Freedom Party – which won the country's parliamentary elections last September – is expected to increase its support.

Whatever the languages being spoken by pre-school children, the phrases rolling off politicians' tongues will continue to include migration and integration for as long as voters respond.