2025

Monitoring Committee : 28/02/2025
The Government of the French Community approved at second reading the draft decree setting up a Monitoring Committee, which will ensure the proper implementation and sustainability of the new pedagogical references guides within schools. 
The core curriculum continues to be rolled out with the entry into force of new learning references guides. These are gradually being implemented to replace the old "core skills". These references guides have been designed with the aim of providing all pupils with a common background of knowledge, know-how and skills, which will help to strengthen the mastery of learning and to fight failure and repetition, as well as to promote the orientation of pupils. 
In order to ensure that these new references guides are correctly deployed in schools, a Monitoring Committee for Core Curriculum references guides has been set up. Its purpose is simple : assess the implementation of pedagogical references guides and measure their effectiveness and sustainability, based on data collected through field observations and teacher surveys. The committee will also make recommendations to improve support, adapt the references guides or refine teaching tools. 
Every two years, a report will be issued to present the results of the monitoring, including an analysis of the state of implementation of these references guides. It will include concrete measures to improve their deployment, such as the adaptation of training or teaching tools, as well as suggestions to revise, if necessary, the references guides.
Specific communication will be sent to the educational teams to ensure smooth implementation and avoid any administrative overload.

Free Time Reception : 24/02/25
The foundations for a recasting and better recognition of the Free Time Reception sector have been laid. This sector needs to be strengthened but also reformed to ensure the quality of services offered to children and their families and to ensure more stable jobs for care workers. 
Free Time Reception includes extra-curricular care, holiday centres, homework schools. It plays an essential role in the development of children as a ‘third place of life’, conducive to their development, after family and school. They discover new activities, develop their skills and gain autonomy. These spaces also promote socialization. 
Two immediate measures are adopted in favour of professionals in the sector on a proposal from the ONE (Office de la Naissance et de l’Enfance = Birth and Childhood Office), for which 2.7 million will be spent in 2025. The first aims to strengthen management by creating posts for project managers (or similar) in Free Time Reception. At least 41 FTEs will benefit from these resources, which will concern some 70 pilot projects.
The evaluation of the pilot projects launched in 2025 will feed into the reflection that will lead to a necessary reform of the sector next year. A new dynamic was initiated at the instigation of the Minister for Children, and entrusted to the ONE, which aims to strengthen the transversality of the sector, standardise practices, reduce the administrative burden and enhance the value of the professions.  
The steering committee, which will bring together representatives of the three sectors managed by the ONE, has been given the task of drawing up a reform proposal and developing a strong vision by the first quarter of 2026.

The French Community is facing a shortage of places in the Early Childhood sector, in crèches or in childcare facilities : 10/01/25
Between 2019 and mid-2024, 1,700 places disappeared, reducing the already insufficient supply. In order to meet the needs of families, an ambitious objective has been set : allowing 5,000 places by 2030 while ensuring the quality of reception. 
Three axes are developed: perpetuate existing places, allow the creation of new places and promote quality reception. 
- Accessibility and quality, two inseparable priorities
The creation of new places is fundamental, whether to allow parents to reconcile their professional life and their family life, to allow them to follow a training or any life project that requires them to find a quality reception. 
- Reception facilities in Wallonia: three strategic axes
1. Concrete the 3,100 places of the Équilibre Plan
The Equilibre plan, initiated in 2022, which stems from the French Community's Cigogne Plan, aims to create 3,158 places through two financial components : 1,716 places supported by European funds (component 1) and 1,442 places financed by Wallonia (component 2). 
In order to overcome the delays caused by the energy crisis and the numerous construction constraints, several measures have been adopted : increase in funding per place created by €5 000 for component 1, extension of deadlines by the end of 2027 for component 2 and wish to extend the deadline for component 1. 
In addition, the administration is providing greater support to the 137 project promoters under way to support the construction of the infrastructure. 
2. Renovate existing crèches 
An envelope of €15 million, including €7 million in additional resources, will be mobilised in 2025 to prevent possible closures due to obsolescence.
3. Launch a new call for projects in 2026
Based on a precise cadastre of needs, this future call for projects will explore innovative models, in partnership with the public, associative and private sectors. All projects will have to comply with the ONE’s authorisation criteria. 
- Ambitious measures in the French Community to support both crèches and childminders
Four priority measures aim to support childcare facilities and families: 
1. Supporting reception facilities
- €10 million to generalise the process of granting the subsidy to finance the management post for all host communities. 
- €3.6 million: additional support of €200 per year per authorised place was granted to non-subsidised crèches for 2024 and 2025. 
2. Ensuring quality supervision
The intention is to aim, in the long term, at financing the standard of supervision of 1.5 nursery nurses for 7 children present simultaneously. 
In addition, an additional €11 million has been made available for: 
• Perpetuate the measure provided for nursery nurses in the context of non-market agreements, which makes it possible to finance a bareme revaluation
• Finalize the passage of the childminders affiliated with specific childminding organisations who wish it by employed childminders,
3. Changing reception with society : because the profession evolves
The challenge today is to work on the shortage of workers by thinking, for example, of reopening the profession to certain types of diplomas. It is necessary to work on the attractiveness of the profession, its upgrading and the possible career path. 
4. Simplify registrations
A platform will be set up to facilitate the search for places and centralize pre-registrations, for the benefit of both organizing authorities and parents, offering better visibility on real needs. This project started, it will be necessary to pay attention to the evaluation phase, hear feedback from the field on its practicability, it is therefore a project that will develop in the coming months.
 

2024

Continuing vocational training of the members of the educational teams of the schools and PMS centers : 08/11/2024
The Government of the French Community has adopted a draft decree aimed at modifying the orientations and priority themes of the continuing vocational training of the members of the educational teams of the schools and PMS centers of the French Community for the period 2024-2030. 
New training will now be provided to teachers and CPMS staff to enable them to be properly equipped to better understand the new challenges facing society today and in the future: 
- to deal with the rise of extremism, in order to enable teachers to better understand this growing phenomenon in our schools,
- better take into account and understand the digital transition and the challenges of artificial intelligence (AI), in particular its implications for the teaching and learning of students, or the development of critical thinking among students,
- better evaluate and thus be at the service of students' learning, 
- be in tune with the adaptations necessary for teaching in connection with language immersion.

The Government of the French Community presented its 2025 budget jointly with that of the Walloon Region : 16/10/2024

- Promoting the teaching profession and tackling shortages

In order to tackle the shortage of teachers, the previous experience of teachers from other professional sectors will be valued for up to 7 years if they come to fill a shortage function. The system of pools of replacement teachers will be extended to two additional areas, from 48 to 70 FTE.

A progressive system of rebalancing between the various education networks will make it possible, on the one hand, to improve the funding of public and government-dependent private schools and, on the other hand, to put into practice in ten years the ‘one pupil = one pupil’ principle.

Finally, a significant investment in the digitalisation of education will be made, in particular to improve the schooling of sick children via digital tools, as well as that of the administration by developing a digital platform for managing the payroll of teaching staff.

- Additional resources for young people and for the transition.

Additional resources have also been made available for key new policies.

Youth Aid is in dire need of resources to work on issues that were largely identified during the previous parliamentary term. New resources have therefore been provided, despite a financially complex context, for new policies that will be initiated and developed in the continuity of the policy pursued in this area. The priority objective will be to open residential and outpatient places in line with the needs of young people and their families.

Early childhood care is a crucial issue in this legislature. Promoting quality care for children and allowing each parent who wishes to find a place in a nursery are objectives that complement each other.

The ONE management contract, which runs until the end of 2025, sets out the guidelines for policies in favour of children. All these policies are financed in 2025.

- Contained growth of the deficit

This takeover of public finances will make it possible for this legislature to stop the growth of the deficit, despite the impact of the increase in the pension accountability contribution (+€267 million annually by 2029), the financing of the Exceptional Investment Plan (on average €200 million annually from 2025 to 2029), an increase in interest charges (+€329 million annually by 2029) and the deterioration of the student key (€168 million less annual revenue by 2029).

According to current forecasts, the deficit is therefore expected to amount to €1,287 million in 2025, compared to €1,225 million in 2024. 

While a slight increase in the deficit is still to be expected in 2026, the effect of the policies implemented should, on the other hand, make it possible to gradually reduce the deficit from 2027 onwards, in line with the stabilisation path set.

Prohibition of the recreational use by pupils of mobile phones : 02/10/24
The Government of the French Community has decided to prohibit the recreational use by pupils of mobile phones and other connected electronic devices in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools in the French Community, all networks combined, from the start of the 2025-2026 school year. The aim is to improve the quality of learning and the school climate. 
The Government is thus following the recommendations of WHO (World Health Organization) and Unesco, which call for the banning of telephones in classrooms for adolescents over the age of 15 as well. 
However, this prohibition in principle does not apply to the educational uses of smartphones, just as they can be used on leaving school, for example, when a parent contacts his or her child to arrange a meeting place to return home. 
While respecting the freedom of organising authorities and schools, the new provisions leave it to schools to determine how to implement the prohibition (which cannot be derogated from), as well as the penalties for non-compliance.  
Pupils with a disability or a health condition that requires the use of a medical device that combines communication equipment will of course be exempted from this prohibition.
 

Support for (future) parents: 31/08/2024

The Government of the French Community has adopted a draft decree aimed at strengthening parenting support services. In total, resources will rapidly increase from 682 000 euros in 2023 to 1.16 million euros per year in 2025 to enable these services to be strengthened, and in particular to create 3 new perinatal support services.
The recognition, support and development of parenting support services are fundamental. These associations and services provide direct support to families, parents, pregnant women and children facing difficulties of all kinds : socio-economic, legal, medical or psychological. These new regulations will make it possible to provide a framework for permanent recognition and structural subsidies for various parenting support services, more specifically :

• Child and parent meeting places : special places for young children and their parents. These facilities help to break the social isolation experienced by some families ;
• Parents' spaces in the separation : structures specifically dedicated to situations of parental conflict ;
• Perinatal support services : responsible for helping pregnant women who are experiencing social, medical or psychological difficulties ;
• Family support services : responsible for supporting vulnerable families in order to promote the overall well-being of children and their families.

Decree on the educational approach to guidance: 16/05/2024

The government is emphasising the educational approach to guidance.  This aims to :

• developing pupils' ability to take action on their career path, but also becoming aware of the constraints and limits on this ability to take action ;
• identifying and criticising the factors, explicit and implicit, which influence choices, including the choice of direction to be made at the end of the core curriculum ;
• transforming knowledge and observations into choices and the actions that make them a reality ;
• developing various scenarios for their future and be able to project themselves into them ;
• becoming aware of the open-ended nature of their choices and of the prospects offered by lifelong learning, particularly in the context of professional development ;
• discovering different professional environments and their diversity, and becoming aware of both the societal contributions and the ethical issues and prospects for socio-professional integration linked to these different socio-professional worlds ;
• linking knowledge, subject-specific or cross-curricular know-how or skills, worked on in class, with the streams and options that open up after the core curriculum and with professional spheres and occupations ;
• discovering the various training options available at the end of the core curriculum ;
• meeting different types of people to help them plan their careers.
   

2023

Crèches: childcare workers' wages to be raised : 21/12/2023

The Government of the French Community has adopted a decree aimed at improving the working conditions of childcare worker (puéricultrices). Following consultation with workers' and employers' representatives, the gross salary of childcare worker in the subsidised private sector will increase by almost 1 000 euros gross per year from 2024, and there will be better support for those leaving municipal crèches.

Support for families : lower fees in childcare settings : 20/07/2023

On 20 July 2023, the Government of the French Community approved, at second reading, the proposed new price scale for childcare settings. In practical terms, subsidised childcare settings bills will fall for parents with average and low incomes, i.e. the majority of parents whose children are of childcare settings age.  Since January 2023, the bills had already been reduced for single-parent families and were free for people with BIM status (Beneficiaries of the Increased Intervention).  The French Community Government is therefore continuing its work to support parents and give as many children as possible access to childcare settings.   At the same time, work to create new places and improve working conditions for childminders is continuing.

2nd reading for the preliminary draft decree on the support, development of professional skills and assessment of teaching staff : 28/04/2023

On 28 April, the Government approved, at 2nd reading, the preliminary draft decree on the support, development of professional skills and assessment of teaching staff. The Government confirmed that the text would comprise two distinct mechanisms, in line with the guidelines set out by education stakeholders in 2017 as part of the adoption of the Opinion number 3 of the Pact for Excellence in Teaching :

• the professional skills support and development mechanism, which is aimed at the positive reinforcement of staff members ;
• the appraisal mechanism, which can only be activated in the event of clear and repeated failure on the part of a member of staff, after all the stages of the support mechanism have been implemented.

However, a number of other changes have again been made to the text with the same objective as those previously incorporated : to provide, at the heart of the appraisal procedure, guidelines that protect the rights of members of staff at least as much as those provided for in existing disciplinary procedures.  The decree will come into force on 1 January 2024, but summative assessment procedures will not be able to begin until the start of the new academic year in 2026.

Decree perpetuating free, sustainable and quality school meals in the schools of the French Community : 20/04/2023

At a time when various studies show that more and more children are finding it difficult to eat properly, the Government of the French Community has approved a decree aimed at making the system of free school meals permanent in the canteens of the schools of the French Community that cater for less well-off children.  This new decree will make the scheme permanent and will now cover the whole of pre-primary and primary education.  A budget of 21.4 million euros will be devoted to implementing this decree.  This decree will enable almost 28,000 children to have access to a full, healthy meal a day in their school.

A new scheme to support childcare settings : 06/04/2023

The Government of the French Community has adopted an emergency measure aimed at supporting childcare settings in difficulty, thereby preserving places and supporting families.  The funding of subsidised childcare facilities with lower than average incomes will be strengthened through a more balanced distribution of income from all parents' financial contributions.  The aim of the new system is to act upstream, without waiting for an emergency situation, so that any childcare setting in financial difficulty, regardless of its organising authority, can apply for special support from ONE.   Several measures are planned :

• Direct, targeted financial assistance from ONE to guarantee the short-term viability of a childcare setting ;
• Accelerated funding of management posts by ONE for childcare settings in difficulty.