Academic Secondary Schools Providing General Education (AHS)
Vienna has 92 AHS schools, 68 of them public and 24 private, which offer a wide range of school forms as set out in their mandate. Recent years have seen an unabated run on Vienna's AHS 1 st classes. The task and objective of AHS schools has always been to impart comprehensive, in-depth general education to their students which entitles them to higher (university) education. AHS education takes eight years and is split into two stages (lower and upper grades).
Entrance requirements
To enter a lower grade AHS class one students must have successfully completed class four of elementary school. Students must have rated above "average” (ratings in Austria being "very good”, "good", "average", "sufficient" and "insufficient", from 1 - 5) in compulsory subjects German and mathematics unless the respective elementary school can prove a student's readiness to attend an AHS-school on other grounds. In case of non-aptitude students must take an entrance examination in German or mathematics or both during the last week of elementary school or on the first two days of AHS school.
AHS forms to choose from
The first two classes of the lower stage (levels 5 and 6 in the school system) have the same curricula in principle. Differentiation starts with class three with several forms to choose from: Gymnasium (emphasis on Latin), Realgymnasium (science-based with emphasis on geometry, technology education) and Wirtschaftskundliches Realgymnasium (home economics, chemistry, technology education), along with some special forms, such as a pilot scheme introducing a second modern foreign language from Gymnasium class three onwards. Most AHS schools in Vienna have English as a first modern foreign language from class one onwards, while some offer French and one teaches Russian from class one onwards.
At the upper stages (classes 5 to 8) there is the Oberstufenrealgymnasium (ORg) along with the three basic types already mentioned. The latter may vary greatly depending on location, with emphasis on either musical instruments, natural sciences, arts and technology education, informatics or music.
Students from class 6 onwards are allowed to choose some of their own compulsory subjects (compulsory electives) enabling them to shape their course of education in accordance with their own wishes and ideas.
The Matura or final examination which gives students the right of entry to university now increasingly focuses on practice-oriented learning, learning independently, recognizing how different fields of knowledge interact, as well as foreign language competencies. To meet their individual interests students now also have a wider range of Matura versions to select from, plus an option to choose between a written project (Fachbereichsarbeit) and an oral examination on a subject area within the school's special focus.
The 1995 amendment of the act governing school hours allows schools (or individual classes) to introduce five-day weeks and give some school days off. Approximately three quarters of AHS schools in Vienna offer lunch and after-school care.
wien.gv.at-English Edition
Contact form