According to her, several Dutch-speaking teachers who came from Flanders to teach in a French immersion school have indeed resigned in order to keep the same school holidays as their children schooled in Flanders, where the calendar has not been changed.
Questioned Thursday on the occasion of the return to Parliament of the FWB by the opposition deputy (Les Engagés) Mathilde Vandorpe on the situation, Minister Désir indicated that a first sounding carried out in the school environment had not at this stage no “particular difficulties” have been revealed.
“That doesn’t mean it’s easy, but no school has had to give up linguistic immersion,” assured the minister.
The only complete figures currently available in terms of resignation in immersion come from the Wallonia-Brussels Education network (WBE). “Of the 270 foreign language teachers, there is only one departure,” said Ms. Désir on Thursday.
Some 40,000 FWB students are currently following their immersion courses, mostly in Dutch.
Following the reform of school timetables, students (and teachers) of the FWB have shortened summer holidays but extended All Saints’ Day and Carnival holidays.
This calendar is also somewhat out of sync with Flanders and the German-speaking community, with certain holidays (Easter holidays in particular) no longer necessarily coinciding.
