Address
Eurydice Vlaanderen
Departement Onderwijs en Vorming
Afdeling Strategische Beleidsondersteuning
Koning Albert II-laan 15
BE-1210 Brussel
Tel: +322 553 17 69
Email:
ask.secretariaat@ond.vlaanderen.be
Website
http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/eurydice/
2025
An Ambitious Curriculum in Primary Education
In 2025, Flanders approved a new set of ambitious and knowledge-rich minimum attainment targets for both mainstream and special primary education. These are designed to ensure that every child leaves primary school with the strongest possible foundation — supporting equal opportunities for wellbeing, a fulfilling life, progression to higher education and fair access to the labour market.
The Flemish Government has opted to define these minimum targets according to the principle of a “knowledge-rich curriculum”, laying down the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes that all pupils must acquire. To guarantee a clear and systematic progression of knowledge, benchmarks are set for the end of pre-primary education, the end of Year 4, and the end of primary education. Alongside Dutch and mathematics, explicit attention is paid to science and technology, as well as to personal development and social skills.
By the end of primary education, the minimum targets in Dutch and mathematics must be achieved at the individual level, since strong language and numeracy skills are essential for academic success and active participation in society. Work towards these objectives begins already in pre-primary education, with targets for vocabulary, listening skills and number sense, alongside aspirational goals for speaking, early reading and writing.
For the first time, pre-primary education also includes mandatory minimum targets that must be achieved at the population level. This means the majority of pupils should reach these goals, which focus on Dutch (vocabulary and listening comprehension) and mathematics (basic number knowledge). To monitor achievement at the system level, a standardised survey will be carried out every three years at the end of pre-primary school with a representative sample of schools. Individual results will not be used to impose consequences on children, but participating schools will be able to use the outcomes for their own quality development.
KOALA screening
Children without sufficient command of Dutch benefit from intensive language support. Since the 2021–2022 school year, all five-year-olds have been required to take a compulsory language test known as the KOALA screening. Pupils who do not demonstrate adequate proficiency in Dutch then follow an active language integration pathway designed to strengthen their skills.
The 2024–2029 coalition agreement determined that the KOALA screening would be updated in line with the new minimum attainment targets for Dutch in pre-primary education.
On 1 December 2024, a new scientific study was launched to examine the implementation of the KOALA screening and related integration programmes in Flemish schools. This research will produce a scientifically grounded handbook, offering practical guidance on the effective use of the screening and the successful roll-out of integration programmes for children with linguistic disadvantages and non-native speakers.
The KOALA screening itself is also being updated, ensuring that children’s language skills are assessed early enough for targeted support to be provided where needed.
ECEC: a general update
In its 2024–2029 Policy Note, the Flemish Government underlines its commitment to investing in early years and pre-primary education. The aim is to keep class sizes manageable for teachers while ensuring sufficient capacity, thereby strengthening both linguistic interaction and overall educational quality.
Fresh expertise will be introduced by recruiting staff with a Master’s degree in (pre-)primary education and by giving headteachers greater scope to attract additional, suitably qualified profiles who can support and enhance classroom teachers.
Education Flanders has recently published a research report entitled Quality Inspiring Pre-primary Education (KIKO), and a new academic study has been launched on the development of a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum in Early Years Education.
2024
The measures introduced in 2023 have been further implemented in 2024. You can find all updates and refinements in the 2023 text. Additionally, new initiatives that were launched in late 2024 are covered under the 2025 heading.
For the most up-to-date information, please refer to the relevant sections.
2023
Additional allowance for non-native preschoolers/newcomers under 5 years of age
Schools for mainstream pre-primary education will receive extra financial support for non-native preschoolers for school year 2022-2023. A school is entitled to 950 euros of additional support:
- Per additional non-native newcomer under 5 years of age on entry day (start of the school year, first school day of February, after the Easter holidays and after Ascension) or
- Per additional pre-schooler who meets the pupil characteristic ‘home language non-Dutch’ the school counts on the boarding day (start of school year or first school day of February) compared to his counting day for the capping and financing.
Language tests
From the school year 2021-2022 onwards, a language test will be compulsory for all children in the third pre-school class. The aim is that pre-schoolers can catch up on any language deficits during the rest of the school year. Children who start primary school with a language deficiency often also lag behind in other areas. Now that the age of compulsory education has been lowered to five years, all children have to go to the third kindergarten class. And that is an opportunity to use screening to detect and remedy language deficiencies in all children in time.
The language test, the so-called KOALA test, takes place between 10 October and 30 November. If the delay at the end of kindergarten is still too great, the class council can advise to postpone the transfer to the primary school. This can be in the form of a language immersion class, or another full-fledged alternative.
For the language integration routes that follow the language screening, schools for ordinary primary education will receive 12 million euros in the school year 2021-2022, in the form of care points. The distribution of these funds is based on the number of 4-year-old preschoolers whose home language is not Dutch.
Action plan to promote reading reading
Reading is one of the foundations of education. Reading is essential for all other subjects, crucial for lifelong learning and for just about all aspects of life. However, PISA and PIRLS have long held up the red card for reading comprehension. Flanders must not fall any further: in the meantime, 20% of the 10 and 15 year-olds do not reach the minimum level for reading. The Reading Action Plan (LOF) tackles this simultaneously on all fronts (education-free time-early literacy...) since autumn 2021 until 2030. The problem is deep-rooted. The approach is therefore inevitably wide-ranging, long-term and high-level.
The Flemish Government now wants to turn the tide with a major reading action plan. From September 2022 onwards, various actions will be rolled out as part of the action plan. They will focus on strengthening reading skills (technical reading, reading comprehension and reading motivation). In the actions that are started from an educational perspective, special attention is paid to children from the 3rd kindergarten to the 1st grade and to TSO/BSO pupils.
The Flemish Minister of Culture and the Flemish Minister of Education are making some two million euros available for this purpose next year alone. An action plan has been prepared with dozens of new initiatives.
There will also be a broad and attractive promotional campaign for reading, by analogy with the STEM campaigns. Flanders also wants to move away from short-term actions with no long-term effect: from now on, programmes will last at least three years and there will be objectives that look nine years into the future. Good reading practices must be spread much more widely via so-called learning networks. It is also the intention to give child minders, nursery school teachers and teachers much more tools to read with and for children and young people. Therefore, more attention will be paid to language and reading in training.
Language stimulating activities
The Dutch language stimulation activities that were first organised during the summer holidays of 2020 at various locations in Flanders and Brussels will continue until the summer of 2022. For this purpose, subsidies are granted to the organising bodies. These language stimulation activities are intended for children and young people up to the age of 18.