2023-08-24 06:16:00
Only 47.5% of French-speaking pupils in Wallonia and Brussels have chosen Dutch as their first modern language in secondary education, according to figures from the education administration of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, published Thursday by La Libre Belgique.
A total of 121,300 French-speaking secondary school students chose Dutch as their first modern language at the start of the 2022-2023 school year, i.e. 318 fewer than the previous school year.
The number of Walloon pupils who prefer the language of Vondel decreases from year to year and has fallen below 60,000. While more than 63,000 Brussels residents learn Dutch, a compulsory option from the 3rd primary in the capital.
English is progressing and cheerfully crosses the bar of 130,000 pupils, and this only in Wallonia. The German, on the other hand, is losing ground and was only chosen by 3,531 young people in 2022-2023.
While 48.5% of French speakers chose Dutch as their first modern language in 2021-2022 in secondary education, this rate has fallen by 1 percentage point in one year. While English continues to progress with more than 51% of students making this choice.
In Wallonia, with a few exceptions, Dutch is not compulsory and students can therefore choose between the other two national languages and English as their first modern language from the 5th primary.
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