Pressure rises for school pupils as school year end nears

Parents splash out a collective 33 million Euros a year on tuition fees in Austria for their children, but are now being advised to spend more time talking to them instead.

Recent figures from the Vienna Chamber of Labour shows that every fourth student in the capital – around 6,000-7,000 – retake their exams every year, with parents paying 32 Euros an hour for them to take the extra classes.

But education psychologist Mathilde Zeman from the Vienna School Board says the stress put on the students by their parents can have a detrimental affect on exam performance and that parents should spend more time talking to their children instead.

While one hour costs 32 Euro at a tutoring institute, private tutoring is a bit cheaper.

Students are particularly facing problems in subjects like maths and languages.

Mathilde Zeman, school psychologist of the Vienna School Board, states that these situations can cause emotions such as despair, sadness and hopelessness.

She thus recommends the parents to regard the grades to be a feedback of the past achievements. The grades are not “important for situations that determine the children’s lives”.

First, parents should try and talk about the situation with their children. It is necessary to find the reason for the failure or a negative mark.

“Children remain their parent’s children, even if they make mistakes and if they do not perform very well in school”, Ms Zeman explained.

Pupils can also contact school psychologists in order to talk about their problems.