Belgium

Basic Data
Official Country Name:	Kingdom of Belgium
Region:	Europe
Population:	10,241,506
Language(s):	Dutch, French, German
Literacy Rate:	98%
Academic Year:	September-August
Number of Primary Schools:	4,493
Public Expenditure on Education:	3.1%
Foreign Students in National Universities:	34,966
Libraries:	1,490
Educational Enrollment:	Primary: 736,782
	Secondary: 1,053,445
	Higher: 358,214
Educational Enrollment Rate:	Primary: 103%
	Secondary: 146%
	Higher: 56%

Teachers:	Primary: 60,738
	Secondary: 126,977
Student-Teacher Ratio:	Primary: 12:1
Female Enrollment Rate:	Primary: 102%
	Secondary: 151%
	Higher: 57%

History & Background

Belgium covers a small geographic area of 32,547 square kilometers and has a population slightly greater than 10 million (10,239,085 in the year 2000). The country is often described as being situated at the "center" of Europe, since the exact geographic center of the 15 member countries of the European Union is located in the Belgian province of Namur and the political seat of the European Union is located in Brussels, the nation's capital.

Belgium's history of numerous conquests by neighboring powers has given rise to strong cultural pluralism. Celts populated the area until the Roman conquest under Julius Caesar in 57 B.C.E. The ensuing period of Pax Romana was characterized by a blending of Germanic and Latin cultural influences and economic progress in the form of improved trade and the rudiments of an education system.

Christianity entered Belgium in the fourth century A.D., but receded temporarily with the conquests of the Franks one century later. Linguistic and cultural pluralism characterized the northern part of what is now Belgium. The establishment of a proto-Dutch language, a Germanic and Latin influenced language, was evidence of the variety in culture and language. Under the powerful leadership of emperor Charlemagne of the Carolingian dynasty, school education received its second rudimentary movement.

The Middle Ages saw the development of textile and metallurgy industries, and the lower southern countries became the crossroads of trade. In the fifteenth century various parts of the lower southern countries were united by the Dukes of Burgundy. Under their rule Belgium became a center of intellectual and artistic endeavors. Austrian rule began in 1500, under Emperor Charles V, and was followed by Spanish rule and the imposition of Catholicism. Belgium became part of the French empire when Napoleon rose to power in 1794 and the Code Napoléon became the basis of the country's civil law. After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo (in Belgium), the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) united the southern (Belgium) and northern (Holland) regions of the Netherlands, to establish a barrier against future French aggression. The forced union led to protests by Catholics against the influence of a protestant Dutch King in clerical matters, and by Belgian liberals who demanded more political freedom.

Revolution against Dutch rule led to Belgium's independence in 1830 and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, with an administrative division of the country into nine provinces (West Flanders, East Flanders, Antwerp, Brabant, Limburg, Hainaut, Namur, Liége, and Luxembourg) and more than 500 municipalities. Belgium's independence imposed its role as a buffer zone during the Congress of Vienna, and proved to be a political complication. The surrounding major national powers accordingly imposed neutrality on the newly independent state. Belgium nevertheless became involved in international conflict on several occasions, first as it established colonial rule in central Africa's Congo region under Leopold II, and subsequently during the two world wars.

Constitutional & Legal Foundations

Education in Belgium is regulated by the first Constitution of 1831, by the constitutional reform establishing cultural and linguistic communities (completed in 1993), and by several school laws. Article 17 of the Constitution of 1831 set "freedom of education," prohibiting efforts to hinder said freedom, and that the state would legislate publicly funded education. Article 17 has been consistently interpreted as meaning that the state must fund education but could not hold a monopoly in it, and that free institutions—in particular the Catholic Church—may provide public education parallel to the state. Accordingly, Belgium has several education systems, and the understandably numerous disputes between these systems have been settled primarily by means of supplemental legislation.

Legislative action of May 1914 instituted compulsory education, to begin in the fall of the year during which the child reached age six. Initially, education was compulsory for eight years. The legislative action also stated that a Belgian could become a primary school teacher having completed only two years of education beyond primary school. In 1983, however, Belgium initiated 12 years of compulsory education, from age 6 to age 18. However, children as young as two and a half years old can attend preprimary education. Of the 12 required years, 9 must be full-time, and the last 3 years (ages 15 through 18) may be spent going to school part-time.

The School Pact of 1958 (made into law in 1959) recognized two basic types of schools in the provision of primary and secondary education, official schools organized by state bodies, and free schools, most of which are Catholic. Parents were given complete freedom to select the type of school attended by their children. Moreover, the state was required to provide sufficient numbers of schools of both types within commuting distance, by direct provision of official schools, subsidies to free schools, or provision of school buses. Free schools that receive a state subsidy could not charge tuition or require fees for textbooks. The 1959 law also required official primary and secondary schools to provide two hours of instruction per week in religion or morals. While almost uniquely Catholic in 1959, religious instruction gradually came to be offered in other faiths, as well. Regardless of their religious beliefs, many parents elect to enroll their children in nondenominational moral instruction.

An immediate political problem generated by independence and affecting education policy was the selection of French as the national language, thereby essentially requiring bilingualism on the part of the Flemish population without parallel imposition on francophones. Throughout Belgium, all administrative offices, courts, hospitals, and other institutions functioned using French as their language. In the Flemish provinces, secondary and university education could only be obtained in French, while primary education was available in Flemish, taught in one of the dialects of the region. By the mid-nineteenth century, a Flemish political movement had developed under the leadership of Flemish intellectuals, who adopted the Dutch language spoken by their northern neighbor as a unifying language for the Flemish people, pushing the diverse multitude of local dialects into the background (a move that has come to be criticized by scholars who see in it the deepening marginalization and even disappearance of local culture and folklore). Legislation passed in 1898 recognized Dutch alongside French as an official language. However, the Flemish population continued to be treated as second best. While a 1932 law required that the language of instruction in primary and secondary education be that of the region (Dutch in Flanders, French in Wallonia and German in the municipalities of the eastern part of Belgium), the law also provided too many loopholes for the Flemish to give up demands for cultural equality.

After the Second World War, relations between the language and cultural communities of Belgium became increasingly strained, as the Flemish northern part of the country realized more rapid economic growth and had a larger population than the French speaking southern part. By the beginning of the 1960s several radical political parties gained popular power, notably the Volksunie and the Front des Francophones. A number of new laws, passed in 1962 and 1963, attempted to settle the language wars by establishing a linguistic frontier that ran horizontally through the middle of the country and requiring the language of instruction for primary and secondary schools to be that of the region. In the bilingual area of Brussels, children were to receive instruction in their "mother tongue," which was determined on the basis of a written declaration by the head of the family. The 1963 law further allowed teaching of a second language to be initiated in third grade, in primary schools that were located in the Brussels region, while primary schools located in Flanders and Wallonia were required to do so only in fifth grade. As a result, "frenchification" of the Brussels capital region, geographically located to the north of the language border continued, fueling the frustration of the Flemish population.

Continued demands for cultural self-determination led to a revision of the constitution and Belgium was transformed into a federal state through four stages of constitutional reforms, which were effected in 1970, 1980, 1988-89, and 1993. Belgian education policies are intertwined with its political progress towards federalism. An important step towards constitutional reform was the passage of language laws from 1873 to 1963, which ultimately recognized French, Dutch, and German as the three official languages of the Belgian state. In response to continuing Flemish demands for cultural autonomy, constitutional reforms of 1970 and 1980 established three geographic regions: the Flemish Region (Vlaams Gewest ), the Walloon Region (Région Wallonne ) and the bilingual capital region of Brussels (Région Capitale/Hoofstedelijk Gewest ), as well as three cultural/linguistic communities (Dutch, French, and German). Each cultural/linguistic community obtained its own parliamentary government. While the Flemish and Walloon geographic regions would also have their own government, the government of the Flemish region coincides with that of the Flemish community. The French language community does not coincide easily with the French region (Wallonia), since the French speaking population of the capital region of Brussels is large in comparison with that of Wallonia, while the Dutch speaking population of Brussels is small compared with that of the Flemish region. Complicating matters even more, the German cultural/linguistic community comprises the population living in the eastern portion of the Walloon geographic region.

The third phase of constitutional reform, initiated in 1989, operationalized the previously established Brussels capital region (Région Capitale/Hoofstedelijk Gewest ). It, too, was endowed its own parliamentary government. On July 14, 1993, the new Constitution was voted into law, with as its first sentence "Belgium is a federal state, constituted of several cultural/linguistic communities and geographic regions." Approximately 58 percent of the population lives in the Flemish region, 33 percent in Wallonia, and 9 percent in Brussels. Of those living in Wallonia, 70,000, or 2.1 percent are German and constitute the German community. Article 24 of the new Constitution decentralized educational authority and transferred it to the communities. Three types of schools coexist within each of the three communities: secular schools administered directly by the communities, grant-aided schools administered by provinces and local communes, and grant-aided free schools with or without religious denomination.

Education policy also is becoming more and more influenced by the needs imposed by Belgium's membership in the European Union (EU). The influence of the EU is especially evident in the teaching and utilization of technology in schools, provision of equal opportunity to children of immigrants, the equivalency ratings of diplomas obtained in other EU member countries, and access to educational exchange programs such as ERASMUS, LINGUA, and SOCRATES.

The linguistic configuration of Belgium is more intricate than evidenced by the three language communities, each of which oversees its own unilingual cultural institutions, since in each of these communities there are significant groups of "foreign" people whose mother tongue is different from that of the language community. These groups, constituting 11.3 percent of Wallonia, 4.2 percent of Flanders, and 27.2 percent of Brussels (Swing 1991/92), comprise educated European Community members as well as second and third generation immigrant workers whose origins are from Italy, Turkey, Morocco, and other countries. While direct immigration to Belgium has virtually come to a standstill, children and grandchildren of migrant workers continue to crowd Belgian schools and will comprise increasing percentages of the school age population. While close to 15 percent of the Belgian population is age 15 or younger, the percentages are the same, or are much higher among Belgians whose ethnicity is Italian (15 percent), Spanish (22 percent), Turkish (43 percent) or Moroccan (48 percent). While Dutch-language schools tend to attract relatively fewer "foreign" children, because children have been socialized in the French language, Belgian francophone children are increasing their participation in these schools owing to favorable student-teacher ratios, the recognition of the need for fluency in the Dutch language for economic advancement, and because of racist sentiments on the part of some parents. To deal with these realities of trilingualism, the European Community funded the experimental Foyer Project in 1981. The program recruited immigrant children into Dutch-language schools, where speaking and writing of both the native language and Dutch are stressed, and French is taught as a second language, even though many children are familiar with a street language version of French. The Dutch language is introduced gradually, for a few hours each week, until the child is literate in the home community language. Stressing the importance of the mother tongue is rooted in the belief that it provides the cognitive base for learning, together with Dutch, which eventually becomes the language of instruction for children enrolled in the program.

The approximately 850 square kilometer German-speaking area of eastern Belgium (Eupen-Malmédy) has seen substantial progress towards autonomy in the Belgian federal state. After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, the two German regions became part of Prussia, remaining so until the end of World War I when the 1919 Treaty of Versailles granted it to the Belgian state. Education policy relating to the language of instruction has varied substantially in the schools of this region, including a period of German unilingualism during the annexation of the region by Germany, followed by a period of imposition of the French language in education and government between 1945 and 1963. The year 1963 was a turning point, marking a move toward decentralization and regionalization and emergence of a new generation of German-speaking intellectuals. The nation's constitutional changes, leading to the four-stage reform of Belgium into a federal state, provided important additional stepping stones in the region's move towards educational autonomy.

Linguistic legislation of 1963 provided that German would be the language of instruction in all classes. A survey of parents, teachers and school principals, conducted in 1976, showed that extreme positions relative to the use of French (no teaching in French or all teaching in French) were those of a minority. Schools in the region range from those in which all classes are taught in German to those where German and French languages exist side by side to schools in which all classes are taught in French. The third stage of the completion of the Belgian federal state, completed in 1989, gave near complete independence in education matters to the three language communities from the central government, including the small German-speaking language community. Today, the people of this region are no longer Walloons or even Germans-they have evolved into German-speaking Belgians.

Educational System—Overview

Of the total population of 10.2 million, 2.4 million are 19 years or younger, roughly evenly divided by sex. The school population was 2,254,000 in the year 2000, with 399,000 children enrolled in preschool, 778,000 in primary school, 779,000 in secondary school, and 298,000 in higher education, of whom 128,000 were in universities and 170,000 in non-university institutions. The rapid aging of the Belgian population is evident in the numbers of school age children. In only five years, compared with the 1995-1996 school year, enrollments have declined from 428,000 to 399,000 in preschool, although higher education enrollments are still rising somewhat. In the following two decades, the pupil-teacher ratio will likely decrease in primary and secondary schools.

The education system is divided in four general parts: preschool education for ages 21/2 to 6, primary education for ages 6 to 12, secondary education for ages 12 to 18, and tertiary education in both university and nonuniversity format averaging four years. The general school year starts in September for preprimary through secondary education and in the second week of October at universities. School holidays and vacations include Christmas and Easter vacations, several single-day holidays, such as Armistice and Labor Days (November 11 and May 1, respectively), and summer vacation starting on July 1.

Owing originally to Article 17 of the Constitution of 1831 (which was retained as Article 24 in the new constitution), Belgium has more private than public schools, and almost all private schools are government subsidized. Federalization of education in 1989 gave the communities authority to organize education with federally provided financial resources and gave them very few areas of decision-making under federal control. The federal government determines the length of compulsory education, the minimum requirements for obtaining diplomas, and pensions and other benefits of teachers. Although at the community level the education authorities can set their own time tables, curriculum, and teaching methods, education has remained fairly comparable across the three communities. Belgian educators are well aware of the need to retain high standards in education, and to maintain its strong position among the world's 15 main trading nations.

Preprimary & Primary Education

Preprimary or preschool education (Enseignement préscolaire/Voorschool onderwijs ) is separate and not compulsory and is provided free of charge at three levels, covering the age groups of two and a half to four years old, four to five years old, and five to six years old. Parents may have to provide assistance in the form of meals, transportation, and activities outside the classroom. More than 90 percent of Belgian children are enrolled in the first level. The number of pupils in preprimary education runs at roughly more than 120,000 for ages three, four, and five. At age five, the number is only half as much, since children who are six years old before September enter primary school. Primary education comprises six years of instruction, divided in three cycles of two years each. The school week has 28 periods of instruction, consisting of 50 minutes each. With five days of instruction per week and 182 school days per year, annual instruction is 849 hours.

Upon satisfactory completion of the sixth grade, pupils receive a Certificate of Primary Education, which guarantees acceptance into secondary education. Primary schools are generally coeducational, with the exception of some denominational private schools. Subjects taught include the mother tongue, a second language, history, mathematics, music, physical education, science, social education, artistic activities, and geography. While compulsory subjects are determined by the community governments, they are very similar. For children 10 years of age in the third cycle of primary education, the number of hours of compulsory subjects totals 848-850 hours for the school year, distributed in the three communities. The time table for the German community closely emulates that of the French community, with the main difference in its 90 hours of compulsory foreign language instruction instead of a flexible time table, which is explained by the fact that the German speaking part of Belgium lies within Wallonia and familiarity with French is emphasized as early as preschool.

Secondary Education

Secondary education in Belgium covers a six-year period, divided in three cycles of two years each, named the observation, orientation, and determination cycles. While a number of subjects are compulsory, students must make curricular choices beginning in the first year of study, ultimately leading to a variety of specializations that generally combine two lines of study. Compulsory subjects for students of ages 13 and 16, at the end of the observation and orientation cycles, generally include mathematics, natural sciences, human sciences, foreign languages, mother tongue, physical education, and artistic activities. The scheduling of compulsory subjects is identical in the French and German communities. While secondary schools in the Flemish community also require the same number of overall hours per year (849 at age 13 and 850 at age 16), they differ from secondary schools in the French and German communities by requiring fewer hours of instruction in the mother tongue, in physical education, and in the natural and human sciences, while requiring more hours in artistic activities, optional compulsory subjects, and other subjects.

A 1971 law drastically reformed the structure of secondary education that had been established during the school wars of the 1950s. It set up a Type I education track that paralleled the traditional education—called Type II—which provided students with very little curricular choice once they had entered lower secondary education in a particular subject area. The traditional education track was heavily influenced by classical languages (Greek and Latin), which could be pursued in their own right or in combination with sciences and mathematics. Type I is a modern education track, divided in three cycles of two years each (observation, orientation, and determination cycles), with a choice of orientation at the end of the first cycle. Although the allocation of school resources varies according to type of education, a single school may offer different orientations or streams. Type I coexists with Type II, and has become more common since its introduction. Of the 18 specialties that can be selected by pupils, eight are combinations with mathematics, six require Latin, and four require Greek. However, modern fields of study have been introduced, such as combinations involving physical education (tracks 7 and 8), economics (tracks 9, 16, and 17), modern languages (tracks 14, 15, 16, and 17), and tourism. Since the number of options and streams available to students has greatly increased with Type I education, so have public expenditures on education. Availability of the two types of secondary education has helped equalize opportunities for pupils from different cultural backgrounds and social classes, an important goal of education reform.

In lower secondary education, students follow a fairly common curriculum during the observation cycle, and then make a choice between general education leading to a university track, vocational education, technical, or artistic education. The option to transfer from one type of education to the other is used more frequently by students wishing to move from general to vocational education. Students in the vocational stream receive the same certificate as those in other streams, although they sometimes have to spend more than six years to obtain the secondary education certificate.

Students can obtain a general lower secondary education certificate after three years, a general upper secondary education diploma after six years in the general, technical, or artistic education streams, and after seven years in vocational education. There are no common examinations and inspectors are utilized to validate adherence to educational standards. The completion rate for the secondary education certificate is 65 percent and approximately one in three adolescents leave compulsory education without having obtained any qualifying certificate at the age of 18.

Education & Technology: Education authorities have begun to promote the inclusion of information and communication technology (ICT) in schools, especially within a national five-year initiative started in 1997-1998. Efforts are not equally aggressive at all levels of education, however. The French and Flemish communities have incorporated ICT in the primary education curriculum since 1997, but with a somewhat different perspective. In the French community, a 1997 decree on missions of the school system stipulated that ICT would be mainstreamed into education using skills platforms, which were introduced in 1999. The most common emphasis by the various education authorities in the French community is to promote ICT as a learning tool. Financing has focused on purchases of equipment, training by pupils and teachers, and use of the Internet. Computer hardware was distributed to all primary and secondary schools over a period of three years. Programming skills do not constitute a curricular objective at the primary level. In the Flemish community, the initiative focuses on acquisition and distribution of software by the Ministry of Education. The ministry also provides the planning framework and time schedule for introduction of ICT, and all pupils are expected to be proficient in the use of ICT and in data processing by the end of primary school.

The German community emphasizes introduction of ICT beginning at the lower secondary level and continuing through the upper level, giving attention to all areas except for computer programming. One hundred hours of compulsory instruction in ICT is incorporated in the curriculum of secondary schools in this community. In both the French and the German community, ICT subject competency must be demonstrated for students to progress to the next year. At the upper secondary level, the Flemish community is the only one of the three that has not yet included ICT in the curriculum, although it is in the process of formulating requirements that students should master by the end of the sixth year. In the German community, ICT is an optional subject at this level of study.

In the French and Flemish communities, basic ICT competency training is a compulsory component of the initial training of general class teachers and for those specialized in certain subjects such as mathematics. In the German community, in-service training is relied upon to achieve teacher ITC competency.

Higher Education

Tertiary or higher education is offered in universities, settings in which teaching and research are combined, and at other institutions of higher learning and training. The typical route into the university track is via the diploma of secondary high school education. Until 1965, higher education followed the traditional French system and was confined largely to four universities, of which two were run by the state (Gent and Liége), two used Dutch as the language of instruction (Gent and Brussels), and two used French (Brussels and Liége). Laws of 1965 and 1970 made possible the creation of new universities and other institutions providing higher education, and divided higher education into long-type and short-type. As a result of these reforms, Belgium obtained a total of 17 university institutions and 407 institutions for higher education. These institutions reflect its multifaceted pluralism in culture, religion, language of instruction, philosophy, and political leanings.

There are six long-standing major universities, of which two (Liége and Gent) are state universities, two are catholic (Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve), and two are free universities (the Université Libre de Bruxelles or ULB and the Vrije Universiteit van Brussel or VUB). The Catholic University of Leuven was founded in 1425 by papal decree and is one of the oldest in Europe. In 1968 the Flemish university elected to remain in the Flemish city of Leuven, banishing the university's French component to a new location at Louvain-la-Neuve, a town in the middle of the Walloon countryside. Thence, the Katholieke Universiteit and the Université Catholique became two separate institutions. The medical faculty moved to the Brussels suburb of Woluwe. About half of the universities offer comprehensive programs, including philosophy, letters, social sciences, economics, law, natural sciences, and medicine. Including the Royal Military School and the joint research institute of the Free University of Brussels, there are a total of 19 universities in Belgium.

All universities offer two levels (called cycles) of university education. Students obtain the Candidature (Kandidaat ) after two years and the Licence (Licentiaat ) after four years. Universities in the French community offer a third cycle leading to the diploma of specialized studies (DES, diplôme d'études spécialisées ), the diploma of advanced studies (DEA, diplôme d'études approfondies ), teaching qualification (agrégation ), or the doctorate degree for which a thesis must be completed. The third cycle requires a minimum of one and up to three additional years of study. The university curriculum in the French community is organized in three sectors (human and social sciences; sciences; health sciences), containing 22 different fields of study overall. Professional and technical higher education pursued at nonuniversity institutions of higher learning (Hautes écoles ) comprises the long type (four to five years) or the short type (two to three years), and prepares students entering professions in industry, commerce, arts, and the fields of paramedical maritime studies.

In the Flemish community, non-university higher education in hogescholen and other institutions was reorganized in 1995-96 to make the curricular requirements similar to those in universities. Short-type and long-type tertiary education in those institutions was replaced by first-cycle and second-cycle coursework. The reforms caused the merger of 163 institutions of higher learning into 29 additional hogescholen. Students in hogescholen make up 60 percent of all higher education students in the community. Since Belgian universities have an open admissions policy, increasing numbers of Dutch students study at Flemish universities and other institutions of higher learning. Some observers believe that this open admissions policy contributes to the high dropout rate of nearly 50 percent in the Community. Flemish universities also have begun to collaborate with the universities of the Netherlands in the "open university" model, a distance education environment, serving a student body that includes many part-time and older students, and making use of modern technologies to deliver instruction. Multimedia technology is being widely applied to innovate and redesign curricula, to deliver instruction, and to enhance student learning. In the 1990s, cooperation between universities in the Flemish community with those in the Netherlands led to stringent quality control in the form of self-assessment by institutions and peer evaluation.

In June 1987 the council of the European Communities initiated the ERASMUS higher education program (European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), designed to foster:

• students incorporating study in another member country, contributing to direct experience in social and economic life of members of the labor force;
• cooperation between universities and other institutions of higher learning of the member states;
• inter-university mobility of faculty;
• citizen interaction;
• development of a pool of university graduates experienced in inter-community cooperation.

Success of this ambitious program would require establishment of a European cooperative university network, thus far nonexistent, grant funding for both students and faculty, enhanced recognition of diplomas, length of study, and increased reliance on conferences and similar academic activities. The commission provides financial support to universities in the member states for the establishment of Inter-University Cooperation Programs (ICPs) that tie in with the five stated goals.

During the adoption of the second phase of ERASMUS, in the 1988-89 academic year, Belgian universities were involved in 191, or 17.5 percent, of the 1,091 funded ICPs from the twelve member countries, and Belgian ICPs provided grants to 219 university students, or 3.1 percent of the 7,031 total in the European Community. While European students entering the program in Belgium encountered a number of academic problems, particularly in relation to foreign language courses and examinations being administered in a foreign language, Belgian students experienced relatively few academic difficulties, with only 11 percent performing at a level below that of domestic students in the member countries' institutions of higher learning. Participation by Belgian students in ERASMUS had increased steadily from 1,385 students in 1989-1990, to a high of 8,111 in 1995-1996.

In the 1990s two new programs have been introduced in the European Union: SOCRATES and LEONARDO DA VINCI. While the latter supplants earlier vocational training programs, SOCRATES has replaced the community programs of ERASMUS and LINGUA (a community language teaching program) and is intended to provide a European dimension in education at all levels.

University Research: Basic research has been part of university activities and education since 1874, and several university institutes connected with Belgian universities have achieved international reputations in scientific research. The Center for Human Heredity at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has achieved international recognition in gene technology research, and the Inter-University Microelectronics Center in Leuven, established in 1984, is a leader in computer chip technology. The Rijksuniversiteit Gent maintains a very large bacteria bank and its Plant Genetic Systems, established in 1982, is renowned for its research in developing insect-resistant plants. Several scientific research projects at Belgian universities have also become part of larger EU and international programs. The AIDS epidemic in Africa was first documented by Belgian epidemiologists and the European network for AIDS treatment is coordinated by a faculty member from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Moreover, the faculty of agronomic sciences at Gembloux is a participant in the European program Biotech, and the Université de Liége has a space research department that collaborates closely with the European Space Agency.

Teaching Profession

Formal education requirements for teachers increase according to the level of education in which they are expected to teach. Initial teacher training for the preprimary and primary levels (21/2 to 12 years of age) requires three years of concurrent academic/teaching training and teaching observation at the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique (French) or the Pedagogische Hogeschool (Flemish). Prospective teachers graduate with a teaching diploma that details a specialty in either preschool or primary school. They are expected to teach all subjects. The initial training for teachers in lower secondary education (12 to 15 years of age) also takes place at the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique or the Pedagogische Hogeschool, where students pursue three years of course work in a specific and an optional subject and increasingly intensive training and practice in teaching, receiving a teaching diploma at the end of three years. Teaching in the upper secondary level (15 to 18 years of age) requires four to five years of university education. The requisite teacher training courses and practice can be taken alongside with the other courses during the last two years or the final year of university study. Alternatively, students may take a two-year part time course in teacher training upon graduation. Teachers at this level have the Licence or Licentie degree as well as a separate teaching diploma. A doctorate degree is generally required to teach in tertiary education, especially at the university level. It is not unusual for teachers with a doctorate degree in upper secondary education and who also are productive scholars to become university professors when they have matured. All teachers are employees of the respective community's administrative education authority and must go through a period of probation before obtaining a permanent appointment.

Belgian teachers have the right to pursue limited in-service training. Each of the communities make available noncompulsory continuing training for teachers, and certificates are awarded accordingly, making it possible to apply for higher level positions. In-service training covers a variety of subjects, including additional education in the sciences, development of communication skills, provision of pluralist education for immigrants and, above all, introduction of new computer technologies.

In the 25 years following the School Pact of 1958, the teaching profession was held in high regard, especially at the secondary and tertiary levels. Teachers in the upper secondary education level enjoyed an elite social status and enjoyed relatively high salaries. In the 1980s and 1990s, it had been suggested that the profession may be losing status, while at the same time demands on teachers were increasing due to curricular reform and the requirements of delivering pluralist education. However, surveys of teachers seemed to indicate continued high levels of job satisfaction. For example, a teacher survey on satisfaction levels in French-speaking Belgian schools in the Free Catholic System (Meuris 1993), revealed that teachers in nursery schools were more satisfied with their profession than were those in primary education, while those in the first cycle of secondary education conformed with the satisfaction levels of teachers in primary education. Generally, the experience of teachers was a positive one.

Belgian educators were faced with new challenges from the European Union. During the July through December period of the Dutch presidency of the European Community, teacher training received special attention. The Treaty on European Union (The Maastricht Treaty of 1992) made up for a shortcoming of the original Treaty of Rome (1957), which incorporated a specific provision for a common policy on vocational training (Article 128), but was silent on the overall area of formal education. The Maastricht Treaty began its Article 127 with the statement "The Community shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between Member States and, if necessary, by supporting and supplementing their action, while fully respecting the responsibility of the Member States for the content of teaching and the organization of education systems and their cultural and linguistic diversity" (Rudden and Wyatt 1994). Teachers were mentioned in Articles 126 and 127. Article 126 aimed community action at "encouraging mobility of students and teachers, . . . the development of youth exchanges and of exchanges of socio-educational instructors, . . . and development of distance education," while Article 127 aimed action at encouraging "mobility of instructors and trainees." Educators were facing the challenge of providing access to the wealth of diversity of knowledge that comprised the people of the union.

Summary

Following independence in 1830, provision of education in Belgium has gone through several phases. Nearly a century and a half of cultural and language strife has ended with constitutional reform and the formation of a federal state. The concomitant introduction of reforms in education have progressively decentralized decision making from the federal government and towards the communities. Throughout the reform, Belgium has maintained the spirit of Article 17 of the Constitution of 1930, now Article 24 of the new Constitution, which guarantees that parents can choose the type of school (secular or denominational) they wish their children to attend, and that education will be financed by government funding. Compulsory education has progressively been extended to 18 years of age, with students given the option of going to school part time after their fifteenth birthday. Traditional secondary education, modeled on the French system and basically providing a transition to universities, has been reformed into Type I (modern) and Type II (traditional) education, greatly increasing curricular specialties ranging from general to vocational and artistic education, and providing opportunity to students to change direction after the observation stage and even between Type I and Type II education. However, completion rates are still only around 65 percent, leaving many young people without a secondary education diploma.

In universities and other institutions of higher learning, curricula and study cycles are becoming increasingly comparable across institutions and across national boundaries. Belgian students show significant participation in the programs organized by the European Commission; the pluralist cultural background and extensive language skills acquired in diverse Belgium helps them succeed in such programs. Belgium must continue to meet the challenge of providing high quality education to its people, as they are the primary resource for a nation of this small size. Despite the fact that education is organized by many different authorities, quality has remained high, and the required courses in the different communities are not diverging drastically over time.

The future holds a number of challenges. Financing a pluralist education system as diverse as that of Belgium leads to high costs per pupil. Although the population is aging, it does not mean that education costs are predicted to decline in the future, since adult life long education is becoming more important and the demands of technology and multimedia education drive up costs. Teachers requiring in-service training also contribute to cost increases. Belgium must continue to facilitate the recognition of diplomas and credentials across its own internal community borders as well as vis-à-vis present and prospective members of the European Union.

Bibliography

Brutsaert, Herman. "Home and School Influences on Academic Performance: State and Catholic Elementary Schools in Belgium compared." Educational Review 50 (February 1998): 37-43.

Cahill, Helen et al. "Blind and Partially Sighted Students' Access to Mathematics and Computer Technology in Ireland and Belgium." Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 90 (March/April 1996): 105-14.

Commission of the European Communities. "ERASMUS: European Community Program for the Development of Student Mobility in the European Community." European Education 23 (Summer 1991): 5-27.

Driessen, Geert. "The Limits of Educational Policy and Practice? The Case of Ethnic Minorities in the Netherlands." Comparative Education 36 (February 2000): 55-72.

European Commission Education Information Network (Eurydice). Key Data on Education in the European Union. 4th ed. Brussels, Belgium: Eurydice European Unit, 2000.

European Commission Education Information Network (Eurydice). "Belgium." In Two Decades of Reform in Higher Education in Europe: 1980 Onwards. 195-215. Brussels, Belgium: Eurydice European Unit, 2000.

Fletcher, Ann. Belgium: A Study of the Educational System of Belgium and a Guide to the Academic Placement of Students in Educational Institutions of the United States. American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, 1985.

Kiefer, Rob. "University Everywhere." European Education 26 (Winter 1994/95): 12-17.

Koninklijk Atheneum Etterbeek. Studierichting, 2001. Available from www.luon.be/.

Maiworm, Friedhelm and Ulrich Teichler. "ERASMUS Student Mobility Programs 1991-92 in the View of the Local Directors." European Education 30 (Fall 1998): 27-55.

Massit-Folléa, Françoise. L'Europe des Universités; L'Enseignement supérieur en Mutation. Paris: La Documentation Française, 1992.

Meuris, Georges. "Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction of Teachers Surveys in French-Speaking Belgian Schools." European Education 25 (Fall 1993): 70-80.

Nationaal Instituut voor de Statistiek. Statistieken: Bevolking en Onderwijs. Belgium: Ministerie van Ekonomische Zaken, 1998-2001.

Phillips, David, ed. "Introduction: Aspects of Education and the European Union." Special issue of Oxford Studies in Comparative Education 5 (1995): 7-11.

Rudden, Bernard and Derrick Wyatt, eds. Basic Community Laws. 5th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.

Schifflers, Leonhard. "75 Years of Education in the German-Speaking Areas of Eastern Belgium." European Education 26 (Fall 1994): 36-48.

Swing, Elizabeth Sherman. "Bilingual/Multilingual Education: Reaction and Reform in Belgium, Wales and England." European Education 23 (Winter 1991/92): 32-44.

—Brigitte H. Bechtold