Austria

Language and Literacy

Austria’s official language is German, with Slovenian, Croatian, and Hungarian as official languages in some districts in Carinthia and Burgenland.^b German also is the language of instruction, except in districts with multiple languages. Primary school lessons in these districts are bilingual—German and either Slovenian, Croatian, or Hungarian must be used equally in instruction. Some new secondary schools have a minority language as a compulsory subject at the lower secondary level, and there is one Slovene secondary academic school in the country. Since the 2003–2004 school year, Austria has introduced a modern foreign language course in all primary schools beginning in Grade 1.