Strengthening teacher education 

For the 2024–2029 legislative term, continued efforts are being made to strengthen teacher education programmes. The aim is to train high-quality teachers through strong and robust programmes. A key principle is that anyone aspiring to teach should have access to a strong and fully-fledged qualification. 

In autumn 2023, the Flemish Minister of Education, the Flemish Council of University Colleges (VLHORA) and the Flemish Inter-university Council (VLIR) signed a commitment declaration to ensure that teacher education programmes actively address nine policy priorities. The declaration places emphasis on strengthening and making teacher education more attractive. It can be consulted here. In the course of 2026, the Flemish Council of Universities of Applied Sciences (VLHORA) and the Flemish Inter-University Council (VLIR) will present their first report on the actions they have taken under the declaration. 

In addition, the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation (NVAO), at the request of the Minister of Education, carried out a study on strengthening teacher education programmes for pre-primary and primary education. The study can be consulted here and focuses on three research topics: a strengthened curriculum, partnerships between teacher education providers and schools, and a programme-specific assessment framework.  

Teacher Profession 

Flanders continues to implement a wide range of measures to tackle teacher shortages, focusing both on retaining existing staff and on attracting new entrants. Key strategies include raising the social status of the profession and improving working conditions. To build broad support across the sector, discussions are currently under way with education providers and trade unions, aimed at finding effective ways of keeping skilled teachers and school leaders in post and drawing new talent into the classroom.

The Minister is already working on employment conditions for the new Master’s programme in primary education (see also 14.1, ECEC). The 2024–2029 Policy Note also provides that in their first year of service, new teachers will spend 80% of their time on teaching and other duties, while 20% will be reserved for induction support.

Initial Teacher Education (ITE) will be reviewed to better align with teachers’ needs and to remove barriers to entering the profession. Additional measures are being prepared to continue policies from the previous legislative period, including validating up to 15 years of professional experience for career changers after 2025, introducing a teaching bonus (allowing reduced timetables so teachers can combine classroom work with formal training), and greater flexibility in shifting resources from core to secondary processes to ease teachers’ workloads.

A separate organisation, Leersteun, established in 2023, already provides structural support for teachers and school teams facing challenges with pupils who have specific educational needs.

Minimum Attainment Targets

In 2025, the Flemish Parliament approved new minimum attainment targets for mainstream and special primary education. These set out the essential knowledge and skills that all pupils must acquire, with a strong focus on Dutch, mathematics, science and technology.

By the end of pre-primary education, the targets in Dutch (vocabulary and listening skills) and mathematics (number sense) must be achieved at the population level. By the end of primary school, the minimum goals in Dutch and mathematics must be reached at the individual level.

For pupils who complete primary school without meeting the Dutch targets but who nevertheless progress to secondary school, Flanders plans to introduce a requirement of three additional weekly lessons in Dutch. These lessons, over and above the standard curriculum, form part of the wider initiative Every Child a Language Champion, which recognises mastery of the language of instruction as the bedrock of a knowledge-rich — and therefore language-rich — curriculum.

The Dutch Plan / Every Child a Language Champion

This plan focuses on the development of the four integrated language skills — listening, speaking, reading and writing — and incorporates the earlier Reading Action Plan within a broader language framework. The approach begins in pre-school childcare and continues from pre-primary education through primary school up to the first year of secondary education.

The strategy combines language enrichment — through teacher professional development, the appointment of a language expert in every school, and the provision of language-rich teaching materials across all subjects — with targeted remedial support for pupils who need it.

Remedial measures include pre-teaching, separate Dutch language classes for pupils whose knowledge of the language of instruction is too limited to follow the mainstream curriculum, and an extra three hours of Dutch tuition for those struggling with particular aspects of the language.

The Every Child a Language Champion plan (2024–2029) draws on earlier research — including studies into teacher professionalisation in primary education — and on a wide range of evidence-informed resources. In this way, it will contribute directly to the implementation of the new knowledge-rich curriculum through the new minimum attainment targets.

The Department of Education and Training in Flanders will work with a number of partners in developing this broad range of interventions. These include Leerpunt and the Dutch Language Union, an intergovernmental organisation, which will provide eight modules (also available online) covering language acquisition, remediation, and links with the new attainment targets.