Education Winterthur's growth poses major challenges for schools

The growing city of Winterthur will once again start the new school year with record numbers on Monday: 12,610 children and young people are expected in the schools - 162 more than a year ago. Demand for extracurricular childcare is also continuing to rise.

A total of 634 regular classes will be run from Monday (plus 8), as announced by the city of Winterthur on Tuesday. While the kindergarten level remains unchanged with 129 classes, there are four more classes each in the primary and upper school levels with 353 and 152 respectively.

On the other hand, there has been a decrease in the number of reception classes, in which foreign language speakers who do not yet have sufficient knowledge of German for regular lessons are allocated.

The decrease from 82 to currently 51 children and young people in ten instead of 14 classes is partly due to the fact that many Ukrainian pupils have now been enrolled or have left the country.

In the new school year, 44.6 percent of all kindergarten and primary school children will receive supplementary school care, according to the press release. This means that demand has doubled within ten years.

In view of this growth, it remains "a major challenge to provide sufficient school and childcare space in the right place at the right time", writes the city.

However, the vacant teaching staff positions have been successfully filled - with the exception of a few very small posts. The situation remains tense for specialist teachers in the areas of special education and German as a second language.