ECEC for Children Under 3 Years

The Ministry of the German-speaking Community is not directly responsible for the organisation of institutions for the Early Childhood Education Care system (ECEC) for children under 3 years of age. This is taken care of by private companies and non-profit associations. This offer primarily concerns childcare to facilitate an easier return to the working world for parents. The GC Ministry for Family, Social Services and Health does, however, have the following authority and responsibilities: It reviews everything done in the childcare department; it establishes the conditions of approval for institutions, subsidisation and quality assurance. The GC plays an informative and advisory role and monitors and evaluates institutions. The Ministry of the GC established the 'Service for Children and Families' (SCF) to ensure that these functions are fulfilled. Its mission is to promote the establishment of childcare institutions, to review their organisation, and to monitor and evaluate their quality. The legal conditions were formulated on 18 January 2007 in a government writ on childcare. The general principles are as follows:

Art. 2. The people or effective associations authorized in the current writ guarantee the best possible prospects and chances for development for every child in childcare regardless of race, citizenship, gender or world view. They consider the child’s individual rhythm, and encourage the child's mental and motor development, creativity and relationship skills. They also provide sufficient structure and freedom of action for every child.

Art. 3. Notwithstanding contrary compulsory legal conditions, people participating in implementing the current writ are obligated to keep the information confided to them while performing their assignment confidential.

Art. 4. Every person authorized as part of the current writ, jurist or not, and every effective association that offers childcare guarantees quality of care in accordance with the applicable conditions of the current writ.

Childcare offered in the GC comprises the following current institutions:

Regional Centre for the Care of Small Children (RCCSC)

The RCCSC is the focal point for the establishment, organisation and attendance of childcare facilities in the GC. It has the legal constitution of a non-profit organisation and works in cooperation with the local public institutions.

• Child-minder service (CS): The organisation offers care centres in all nine of the GC’s municipalities and currently employs 85 child-minders. The child-minder service must guarantee care from Monday to Friday, 10 hours a day and 220 working days per calendar year. Childcare never takes place at the residence of the child to be minded. The service guarantees continuous psycho-social attendance to the child's development, education and health. A child-minder can take care of a maximum of four small children and a total maximum of six children at the same time.
• Preschool: The GC currently has one preschool located in Eupen and administered by the RCCSC. It is open Monday to Friday from 7:47 a.m. until 5:45 p.m. (4 weeks annual holiday). It has a capacity of 24 places for children from 0 to 3 years old whose parents are pursuing a career.

Self-employed Child-minders

Child-minders are not hired by the RCCSC, but the Ministry of the GC ensures the quality of care by approving self-employed child-minders. In addition, SCF consultants supervise and advise child-minders and administer further training. Self-employed child-minder’s work consists of caring for the children of working parents in their own home.

ECEC for Children over 2-3 Years

Preschool is administered and subsidised by the German-speaking Community for children between the ages of 3 and 6. There are no autonomous preschools. Preschool constitutes a level of school, but always makes up a single unit with the primary school levels: the basic education.

The preschool education in Belgium has become a fully valid, integrated component of the general education system. The majority of laws and regulations concerning preschool are the same as those for primary school. In most cases, the policies apply to the entire basic education, in other words, preschool and primary school. The legal conditions were newly formulated and specified in a decree on standard basic education on 26 April 1999.

The decree specifies standards for uniformly and bindingly establishing, closing, re-opening, merging, reorganising, job evaluation, admission requirements, organising working hours, and information on the range of classes for all basic education facilities, meaning preschools and primary schools.

The universal objectives for the entire basic education system (preschool and primary school) are specified and read as follows:

• Basic education is involved in a child's development by taking care that the child's personal development and the learning process optimally complement each other;
• It partakes in the development of knowledge, proficiencies and skills via pupil-oriented lessons;
• It assists with socialising children; Children learn what it means to be part of society. In the process, the schools support the integration of children into society and foster their conduct and skills so that they can actively participate in the development of their society as soon as possible. The school is mindful to respect a child's identity.
• Preschool's objective is to encourage the maturity process, develop autonomy and children's sense of responsibility, so they are already able to tackle the basic learning processes with a chance of success when beginning primary school.
• Preschool also constitutes the first phase of learning social behaviour. It encompasses the development of children’s autonomy, sense of responsibility and cooperation.

These general objectives include:

• social-affective goals: Supporting a child's development, helping them, accepting them, getting to know each other (using motivation, demonstrating limits, acknowledging their successes, and apprehending the consequences of their actions);
• intellectual goals: Helping children through versatile experiences that repeatedly overcome their syncretic perception (via observation, experimentation, language development);
• psycho-motor goals: Helping children get to know themselves better and gain trust in themselves (via body language);
• artistic goals: To draw children's attention to the beauty expressed in poetry, to develop their appreciation of art and aesthetics, and to give them room to be creative.

The Catholic schools of community-run subsidised educational systems have additional objectives of a religious nature established in their educational aims.