Back to school: Between fresh starts and emergency plans

Before the students return, the Bundesgymnasium Schwechat is quiet. Teacher Julia Straub-Eichinger is using the final days to prepare classrooms, class registers and lists, while also trying to ready herself for the year ahead.

“The days before school starts are very special,” she said. “It is a mixture of joy, curiosity and tension about whether what you thought through over the summer will work out.” Schools in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland reopen on Monday. The other Austrian states follow on Sept. 14.

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The days before school starts are very special.

Straub-Eichinger, who teaches ethics and biology, says teachers wonder whether established classes or newly formed groups will work both socially and academically. They also have to consider whether students will cooperate, excel or struggle with the material and with one another.

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It is a mixture of joy, curiosity and tension about whether what you thought through over the summer will work out.

The challenges among students appear to be growing. Figures from Vienna’s provincial police directorate show that reported violent offenses in schools more than doubled between 2015 and 2024. An OECD TALIS study also found increases in vandalism and behavioral problems across Austria.

“Bullying and physical attacks are now happening strongly in the first and second grades,” Straub-Eichinger said. The school is responding with violence-prevention workshops, but she recalled years when social interventions consumed so much time that she could cover only the bare minimum of the curriculum. She also said conflicts among parents in phone groups can spill over onto children.

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Bullying and physical attacks are now happening strongly in the first and second grades.

Digital media add another concern. Lukas, a 30-year-old German teacher who asked to remain anonymous, said students’ attention spans are extremely short. He notices it when they read aloud, losing focus and mixing up letters because their thoughts have already shifted elsewhere. He suspects smartphones, games and apps that carry videos and images are part of the problem. He doubts that the planned social-media ban for under-14s, due to take effect in 2027, will change the situation quickly. A smartphone ban through eighth grade has applied since 2025, he said, yet students still appear in corridors and schoolyards with phones in their hands.

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The attention span of children is extremely short.