NEOS revealed: Why is the government keeping the 100 thousand Euro “Islamic schools research” secret?

2023-08-16 15:52:28
NEOS MP Yannick Shetty Photo Copyright: Parlamentsdirektion/PHOTO SIMONIS

Vienna. NEOS MP Yannick Shetty’s parliamentary question revealed a scandalous truth worth 100 thousand Euros.

In the response to the parliamentary question, Shetty learned that a study conducted by the Ministry of Education on the “integration potential of Islamic schools in Austria” was never published and the results were not even processed. NEOS representative pointed out that the cost of the study was 99,972 Euros. “How can a study worth 100,000 Euros be commissioned and then forgotten?” He expressed his reaction with his words. Shetty told „Heute“ “The Ministry of Education, led by the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), is notorious not only for its lack of vision, but also for its chaos, to the detriment of taxpayers.” He blamed the government with his words.

Minister of Education Martin Polaschek (ÖVP), who made a statement after the scandal, also said: „Religious-cultural difficulties in public schools with a special focus on Islam and extensive devaluations“ It was noteworthy that a study on the subject had not yet been published and was not processed. Polaschek explains why both studies were not published. “Due to the establishment of the civil servant government and the Corona pandemic, no measures have been taken or developed from the study so far.” he explained with his words. On the other hand, Polaschek said that he wanted to check whether the studies were up to date and review them in detail, also noting that both studies were commissioned by his predecessors.

100,000 euros worth of work was ‘accidentally’ forgotten

NEOS requested service procurement from the Ministry of Education in 2018. According to Polaschek, the then Minister of Education, Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP), did not mention the study on the integration potential “by mistake”. Polaschek did not answer the question of whether the studies should still be published. NEOS Deputy Shetty said to Minister Polaschek: „A scientific study on Islamic schools would be extremely interesting to the public. Why does Polaschek want to keep the public in the dark?“ posed the question. (yenivatan.at)