Wiederkehr announces nationwide "hitzefrei" policy for schools

There was a clear rejection of extending the duration of the summer holidays. If the summer holidays were to be moved forward, all federal states would have to go along, the minister said. The Education Minister also pointed to the existing possibility whereby the Ministry of Education "die unumgänglich notwendige Zeit" can declare school-free by ordinance.

Key Content Points

Key content points

Timeline

Temperature thresholds are regulated differently in other countries – for example, according to room temperature, early morning temperature, or forecasts. Wiederkehr announced that he would examine different designs: "In Sachen ‚hitzefrei' werde es unterschiedliche Ausgestaltungen brauchen, jeweils mit schulautonomen Möglichkeiten"

Furthermore, the same temperatures would not prevail throughout all of Austria, Wiederkehr noted. This was another argument for a flexible yet uniformly designed solution. The goal is for schools to be able to independently respond to heat stress depending on regional conditions and building condition.

Open Questions

Timeline

With corresponding consensus, a swift passage would be possible, the minister signaled. This initiative is therefore also directed at the state authorities and school partners, who would have to cooperate on a legal amendment. It is conceivable that the regulation could go into review before the start of the next school year.

It remains open which concrete threshold values will be used and what the coordination with the federal states will look like in concrete terms. The question of whether the measure should apply only to compulsory schools or also to secondary and upper secondary schools has also not yet been finally resolved.