Petra Revay-Schwarz, the director of Felbigergasse elementary school works with her students.

‘Ghetto classes’ in Austria have come in for flak from certain quarters. Since 2018, the government has been allowing migrant children with weak German skills to learn the language.However, critics have slammed the move, saying the classes only serve to segregate, not integrate.

Over 6,000 children are now attending these classes.

The country of 8.8 million inhabitants has been a magnet for those from poorer nearby European Union members, such as Hungary and Romania, looking for work.

Every morning Abulrahman leaves his normal primary school lessons in Vienna and joins about 20 other children for three hours to learn to read, write and speak German .

Only when his level is deemed good enough will the eight year-old, who arrived from Yemen in July, be allowed to stop what critics call the "ghetto classes".

Children participate in a special German language class for recently arrived migrant children.

However the classes have divided opinion.

While some fear that too many non- German -speaking foreigners in class will dilute the level and speed of learning, others slam the reform as a regressive measure, in a country previously known for inclusive housing and other policies.

Sonja Hammerschmid, a Social Democrat former education minister, has said that the classes' "harmful effects" of stigma and inequality are "ignored for ideological reasons".

Austria's teachers' union has also spoken out against them, saying they are not "viable" and that the decision to introduce them was made without consultation.

And linguist Hans-Juergen Krumm, an expert in teaching German as a foreign language at Vienna University, points to the classes being "a measure of segregation, not integration".

Girls take a break during a special German language class for recently arrived migrant children.

Kurz's government with the Greens has stressed that schools have the necessary autonomy to implement and shape how the classes are organised.

though the Greens have criticised them as "ghetto classes", they have said that they will accept Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's tough line on immigration in order to fight for environmental protection and other issues.

Despite conservative Kurz's new coalition partners, the Greens, voicing concerns about the controversial policy, it looks set to continue.

Kurz has pledged to maintain his anti-immigration reforms – with junior partner, the Greens, conceding – including the special classes, which the government argues allow children with weak German skills to learn at their own pace without holding others back.

Katrin Baminger is teaching a special German language class for recently arrived migrant children.

"It is a way of preventing the permanent exclusion of pupils unable to follow due to a lack of language skills," said Education Minister Heinz Fassmann, who also held the portfolio in Kurz's previous coalition with the far-right.

That anti-immigration alliance broke apart in May amid a corruption scandal that engulfed the far-right.

Since 2015, more than 180,000 people have also sought asylum, as part of a larger movement of those fleeing war-torn countries seeking refuge in Europe.
Ahead of the language classes being introduced in 2018, a survey showed that more than 80 per cent of respondents were in favour of the plan.

Some 6,300 children across Austria are now enrolled in the language classes.

'Learning to write my name'

"I'm learning to write my name, to say the right words," Abulrahman tells AFP, in still hesitant German at the Felbigergasse school in a privileged district of the capital.

Teacher Katrin Baminger collects him and the others, aged six to 10, from their regular classes just after roll call.

She accompanies the children -- originally from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Hungary, Serbia and elsewhere -- to a small, cheerfully decorated room on the ground floor.

There, they learn German before returning to their regular maths, history and other classes for a few more hours a day.

Felbigergasse school head teacher Petra Revay-Schwarz acknowledges that having pupils with no German skills is challenging for her staff.

"The teachers are relieved at the start of the (school) year because they do not have to take care of new arrivals" who are in the special classes, she said. 

Agence France-Presse