Austria to spend 100 mln USD for language training in kindergartens
Xinhua, February 26, 2015 Adjust font size:
Austria on Wednesday pledged 102 million U.S. dollars to extend an early language training program in kindergartens for another three years.
The current program, with a funding of 34 million dollars, will expire at the end of 2015.
The new fund consist of 68 million dollars from the federal government, up from 17 million under the previous package, and 34 million from the state governments, instead of the previous 17 million, Der Standard newspaper reported.
The program aims to help children aged between three and six, whose mother tongue is not Germany, get ready for the language demands they will face when entering primary schools.
The new package entails "more accurate collection of data" for children, including two tests per year in order to better assess progress by children.
It is estimated that about 22,800 children in Austria do not meet the standard of proficiency in the German language. Endi