2023-10-21 05:12:00
This weekend the members of the Reform Movement will work on a series of issues: the environment, the climate, taxation and the labor market, security and justice, asylum and immigration, health and especially teaching. It is ahead of these discussions that the Minister-President of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation wanted to present his five proposals to us.
Compulsory education at 3 years
The first is known since it involves raising compulsory education to 3 years. In Wallonia, 97% of 3-year-old children are already in school at this age. In Brussels, the proportion increases to 85%. “We see that among the students who are not there, they are students who do not speak French well, therefore of foreign origin. However, when you do not have the minimum knowledge of French, all subjects become complicated. It’s really a measure to limit and avoid dropping out of school and subsequently repeating a grade.”
Pierre-Yves Jeholet wants an end to compulsory education from the age of 16: “Why force young people to stay in school if they don’t want to?”
External certification assessments
The second proposal concerns external certifying evaluations. The Liberals want to impose a first certification in 3rd primary in relation to basic knowledge, in particular French and mathematics. A second exam would come in the sixth year of primary school before going into the three years of the common core. Then a third evaluation would be made following the last three years of the common core. “We really want to allow the student to make a positive choice and have a positive orientation,” explains Pierre-Yves Jeholet. Finally, there would be a certification in the final year and an orientation test for those who want to go to higher education. “It is an orientation test which would be obligatory, but which would not be binding”, insists the minister.
©cameriere ennioPierre-Yves Jeholet: “We have been investing too much public money for years in policies relating to housing, training and education”
Work-study as a reference model
Pierre-Yves Jeholet wants “school to be more present in the business world and for business to be much more present in the school world”. This is why the Liégeois, who relies on the good results of this method observed in Switzerland, Sweden and Germany, wishes to make work-study training a reference model for qualifying education.
”Work-study training is in-company training. It is essential to reconcile the world of school with the world of business. This is not the case today. These are environments which are compartmentalized, which have difficulty speaking to each other or in any case which must speak to each other. We need much stronger synergies.”
The MR’s fourth proposal will undoubtedly scare parents who only read the title. “If we ask parents the question, we must not touch anything and not talk regarding it,” brushes the liberal minister, who still remembers the resistance expressed by parents during the adoption of the new school calendar.
Many fears had been expressed regarding internships and vacations without the discussion commenting on the heart of the subject, namely that the interest of this reorganization of schedules lay in the capacity to offer a better “quality of learning to children”. For the reform of daily rhythms, it’s the same thing. “If we want to work on inequalities, on children who have dropped out of school, we need to reorganize time. We want to concentrate learning on the timetable at the start of the day and have remedial activities, homework, but also cultural activities and sporting activities in the followingnoon.”
The MR wants to put this debate on the table because he considers that it corresponds to a need for emancipation of families and that it fits with new forms of organization of both work and daily life.
©waiter ennio
“Money does not flow from walls,” sighs Pierre-Yves Jeholet as he introduces his fifth proposal. “The financial situation of all entities being what it is, we will have to make savings at the level of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.”
Some savings can be made by creating synergies between school networks, “but it still remains very complicated”, continues the president of the Liège MR. At the FWB level, the majority of the budget goes into human capital, “essential for helping youth, for culture, for sport, for early childhood, for education”.
The solution consists of merging the official networks (municipalities, provinces, Wallonia-Brussels Environment) and keeping the network free. “Having a single network would make it more efficient and more efficient. If I had to rewrite everything from a blank page, I would only do one network. But I don’t want to rekindle a school war. This government has just worked on rebalancing between official education and free education in relation to services, operating costs and school buildings. The government has maintained very good relations with the free network. But at the official level, I think there is really work to be done and this involves merging the official networks.”
However, the MR does not want to compartmentalize official education and free education. It pushes for synergies to allow teachers to work in both worlds. “Today, we know that philosophical affiliation is not the only criterion, far from it, in the choice of school. Teachers who do not have class hours are paid to stay at home because it is expected that if there is not an option they can teach within a 35 kilometer radius, they can stay at their home.” Increasing this radius, whatever the network, would make it possible to save money, assures the liberal who does not see where this might block politically.
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