The special task of monitoring quality of teaching is carried out by various bodies, which we will discuss in more detail below: these are the school inspection, the external evaluation and the religious inspectors responsible for the cults.

Working conditions 

See below. 

Requirements for Appointment

See below.

School Inspection

Assignment

The school inspection is concerned with monitoring and development of the schools (Community Education System, Official Subsidised Education System, Free Subsidised Education System), and performs numerous tasks.

Together with each school, the school inspection monitors the quality of teaching and the development goals defined within the schools.

 In Addition, the school inspection also performs other tasks:

• it checks, for example, whether the prescribed development goals and the competencies described in the core curricula are being taught;
• it also verifies compliance with the curricula, study programmes and activity plans approved by the government;
• it checks that the provisions of the Decree of 19 April 2004 on the teaching and use of languages in education are complied with;
• it checks that the teaching establishments comply with the provisions on holidays, teaching hours and minimum weekly timetables;
• it checks whether a teaching establishment has sufficient teaching materials and appropriate school equipment;
• it takes part in the oral feedback of the external evaluation at schools;
• it carries out compulsory school attendance checks and monitors homeschooling;
• it participates in the assessment and evaluation of staff members in accordance with the procedures laid down in the staff regulations. In carrying out these tasks, she may be assisted by external experts;
• it carries out complaint management;

Beyond that, the school inspection also performs the following tasks:

• It writes expert opinions for the government regarding to financing, admission to subsidy or recognition of educational institutions or study programmes.
• It carries out tasks in the educational field on behalf of the government. This includes among other things:
• Elaboration and implementation core curricula for the education system in the German Speaking Community, planning and implementation of pedagogical projects in cooperation with school authorities, writing of pedagogical expertises;
• It carries out all other assignments provided for by law or decree or by the implementing provisions of the laws or decrees.

The school inspection also carries out the tasks listed below regarding primary and secondary education and further education organised by the German-speaking Community. These may be extended to these school authorities at the request of a subsidised or recognised school authority:

• coordination of the writing of new activity plans and revision of existing activity plans, study programmes or curricula;
• development, processing and evaluation of pedagogical concepts and projects;
• tasks of pedagogical mediation in conflict situations.

Implementation of the tasks

The school inspection has the right:

• to attend classes in consultation with the headmaster or, in his absence, with his deputy, and to maintain a broad dialogue with the members of the school community;
• to inspect all documents relevant to the performance of the tasks.

Professional secrecy

School inspectors are bound by professional secrecy in the performance of their duties.

Legal basis

The legal basis is the decree of 25 June 2012 on school inspection, school development advice and school advice for inclusion and integration.

External Evaluation

Assignment

In addition to internal evaluation, external evaluation in particular is an essential element in developing teaching and school quality.

Since January 2016, the external evaluation procedure has undergone significant changes in the German-speaking community of Belgium. The decisive reason for the new orientation of the external evaluation was to think the procedure more from the perspective of the individual schools and to strengthen the school's own responsibility. The school is involved in the evaluation process at an early stage; it actively shapes its external evaluation in terms of organisation and content. It also helps decide on the period of school attendance, which takes into account the status of the school development process.

The task of the external evaluation is thus the systemic analysis of framework conditions, teaching and work processes and results of all regular and special schools. The aim of external evaluation is

•  to stimulate school- and classroom development through a data-based survey of current school work;
• to establish comparability based on recognised quality standards;
• to facilitate the accountability of the increasingly independent schools;
• Self-control, transparency and sustainability are the cornerstones of this external evaluation, which focuses on the early interaction of school, school inspection, school development consulting, the ZFP competence centre, specialist consulting and targeted training and further training of educational staff.

School Quality Orientation Framework 

The School Quality Orientation Framework explains and defines what constitutes teaching and school quality. It thus offers schools orientation and support in the form of concrete reference points for their own school and teaching development. In addition to the obligatory criteria of the School Quality Orientation Framework, further supplementary criteria can be agreed upon in the context of a school-specific review panel.

Procedure

The external evaluation is divided into two phases: a preliminary phase and a main phase. Both phases are characterised by transparency, participation and cooperation:

• The preliminary phase with the modules preliminary discussion and coordination discussion serves to plan and prepare the main phase.

• In the main phase, the analysis of school documents and the school visit lasting several days with interviews of school groups and class observations as well as the feedback conference take place.

  The amount of documents to be submitted by the school has been significantly reduced. The school submits five mandatory sets of documents in the school portfolio: the school project, the current status of its school development plan, the current status of its school internal curriculum, the school internal agreements on formative and normative evaluation and the further education concept.

  The use of standardised lesson observation forms enables concrete and comprehensible feedback to the schools. 

  The school receives an evaluation report with the results of the external evaluation as a basis for further school development. In a feedback meeting, the school's evaluation team again explains data, statements and impulses of the evaluation report. The school records its questions in advance in a feedback protocol on the draft report. The confidentiality of the findings and results is maintained. Each school is externally evaluated at least once every five years.

  If the external evaluation reveals that the quality of the educational activities at a school is inadequate, the external evaluators determine a timeframe within which the school concerned submits a detailed plan to remedy these quality deficiencies. In the context of a timed ex-post evaluation, the external evaluators will examine the effectiveness of these measures. The external evaluators then prepare a report on the results of the ex-post evaluation, which is submitted to the government, the school authority and the school evaluated.

  The external evaluation procedure provides for the headmaster to inform the school inspection of the quality assurance and development objectives that the school has developed on its own responsibility. In such cases, the school inspection provides the school with timely and reasoned feedback.

  Legal Basis

  Articles 70 to 73 of the Decree of 31 August 1998 on the mandate to school authorities and school staff and on the general pedagogical and organisational provisions for mainstream and special schools deals with external evaluation.

  Religious Inspectors

  For each of the recognised religions, the cult authorities appoint inspectors who are recognised by the Minister of Education. These inspectors are responsible for religion teachers working in the field of education.

  The religions concerned include Catholic, Protestant, Israelite, Orthodox, Islamic and Anglican.

  In the field of community education, the inspectors of religion are subject to staff regulations written specifically for them (Royal Decree of 25 October 1971 laying down the Staff Regulations of primary school teachers, teachers and inspectors of the Catholic, Protestant, Israelite, Orthodox, Islamic and Anglican religions in the teaching institutions of the German-speaking Community), which are very similar to the Staff Regulations of other staff members.

  Condition of service

  See above.