Kärnten families spend €7 million on tutoring before school starts

Families in Kärnten spent around seven million euros on private tutoring last year as students prepare for resit exams, close knowledge gaps or seek a stronger start to the new school year, ORF reported.

With the start of school only a few weeks away, tutoring centres are entering their busiest period. Some students are preparing for resit exams, while others are using the final weeks of the holidays to improve areas they struggled with during the previous school year.

Leander Springenschmied is revising mathematics after finding the subject difficult and recently taking a resit exam. He said he wanted to begin the new school year with more knowledge so the same problems would not recur.

Tutor Bernhard Kienzer-Rumpold said demand rises towards the end of the summer holidays. Students need to start preparing early for autumn exams so they can close gaps, build continuity and gain confidence. Others begin tutoring about a week before school starts to feel better prepared.

Figures from the Chamber of Labour show that 22,000 students in Kärnten received tutoring last year. Families spent around seven million euros on it, down from approximately 10 million euros the previous school year.

Mathematics remains the subject for which students most often seek help, accounting for 68 percent of cases, followed by German and foreign languages. The demand is not driven solely by poor grades: many students also want to improve their performance and feel increasing pressure.

According to education director Isabella Penz, the transition from primary school to a secondary academic school and the final school-leaving examination are particular hurdles. Parents want children to achieve the best possible grades when moving to a higher school, while students nearing graduation often need to catch up in one subject, usually mathematics or German.

For Springenschmied, the additional study hours are intended above all to provide greater confidence in the new school year.