Daily PE lesson: no new gyms planned

A daily physical education lesson will be introduced to Austrian full-time schools in autumn. However, additional gyms will not be built. City councillor Christian Oxonitsch (SPÖ) said that a renovation would be enough.

“We guarantee a minimum of five hours of movement and sport per week for all classes in full-time schools”, said Claudia Schmied (SPÖ), minister of education, in April.

The municipality council decided about a renovation package in 2007. This package will run until 2017. In total, 570 million Euros will be invested in 242 general compulsory schools.

However, new gyms are not planned. City councillor Christian Oxonitsch told Radio Wien that building new gyms was not necessary. 53 million Euros will be invested in the renovation of schools. 21 gyms are included in these renovations.

Susanne Brandsteidl, the president of the Vienna Board of Education suggested that pupils go running on Danube Island. Thus, they would not need any additional gyms.

At the moment, 156 schools are being renovated. The city of Vienna and the districts share the financing. The FPÖ criticises this and demands that the burden should be taken off the districts.

Mr Oxonitsch countered that this was hardly possible as the districts were responsible for the renovation of the schools.