In the 2022/23 school year, it was at 39 percent, as shown by an analysis in the new National Education Report. In 1980, the rate was still 22 percent, in 2000 it was just under 30 percent, in 2010 it was 34 percent and in 2016/17 and 2019/20 it was 38 percent.

Highest Secondary School Rate in Vienna

By far the highest secondary school rate is still in Vienna at 56 percent - although this has also been practically stagnant for years. Somewhat surprisingly, Carinthia follows with 43 percent, being the only federal state besides Vienna to exceed the 40 percent mark. In a ten-year comparison since 2012/13, the rate in the southernmost federal state increased from 39 to 43 percent, the strongest increase.

They are followed by Lower Austria (38 percent), Burgenland (37 percent), Styria (36 percent) and Salzburg (35 percent). The lowest secondary school transition rates are in Upper Austria (30 percent), Vorarlberg (28 percent) and Tyrol (26 percent) - where the proportion of secondary school transitions has even been declining recently.

The report also presents so-called primary and secondary origin effects in school choice. Primary inequality effects arise, according to the report, because children from lower social strata tend to perform worse in school and therefore are less likely to attend a school that is geared towards acquiring higher formal qualifications. Secondary inequality effects, on the other hand, occur when students from different social groups, despite having the same skills, choose a formally higher school with different probabilities. Reasons for this include the assessment of costs, the classification of the probability of successful completion, or the subjective value of education.

For attending secondary school, it was found that social inequalities can be explained to about three quarters by the performance-independent choice of school and only one quarter by the actual performance differences. For an analysis, for example, the rate of secondary school transitions in the middle 60 percent of the performance distribution of the respective groups was presented: It was shown everywhere a clear correlation between reading competence and the proportion of students who stated that they would transfer to a secondary school after primary school. Children whose parents have only completed compulsory schooling tend to have weaker reading skills and therefore less often transfer to a secondary school.

Large Differences

However: If only children with the same reading competence (measured by the PIRLS comparative study, note) are considered, there are enormous performance-independent differences in school choice. Children of academics, whose performance was close to the Austrian average of 530 points, transferred to a secondary school in 56 percent of cases. For children of parents who have completed at most compulsory schooling or vocational training (e.g. apprenticeship or vocational middle school), the rate was only 21 percent with the same reading performance. Even for children from families with a high school diploma as the highest degree, the proportion was only 33 percent.

(APA/Red)

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