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Eurydice

EACEA National Policies Platform:Eurydice
National reforms in early childhood education and care
Belgium - Flemish Community

Belgium - Flemish Community

14.Ongoing reforms and policy developments

14.1National reforms in early childhood education and care

Last update: 3 February 2025

2025

An Ambitious Curriculum in Primary Education 

Flanders is developing ambitious, knowledge-rich, and assessable minimum objectives in primary education. In addition to focusing on Dutch and mathematics, the new minimum objectives also allocate sufficient attention to STEM, personal development, and social skills (also see 14.2, school education). 

The minimum objectives for Dutch are set to be achieved at an individual level. Attention to Dutch starts in early childhood education, with minimum objectives to be reached for vocabulary and listening skills, and aspirational minimum objectives for speaking skills and emerging reading and writing skills. The KOALA tests, which screen Dutch proficiency, will be further updated (see infra). 

KOALA screening  

Students who do not have sufficient proficiency in Dutch benefit from intensive language support. Since the 2021-2022 school year, students who, based on a language screening at the age of five (the KOALA screening), are found to have insufficient Dutch proficiency must follow an active language (integration) program to improve their Dutch language skills. In the 2024-2029 coalition agreement, it was decided to update the KOALA screening. 

On December 1, 2024, a new scientific study began on the implementation of the KOALA screening and language integration programs in Flemish schools. The study will develop a scientifically based inspiration guide for the effective use of the KOALA screening and the successful implementation of language integration programs for students with language deficiencies and for non-native speakers. 

ECEC: a general update 

With regard to ECEC, the Flemish Government further emphasises in its Policy Paper 2024-2029 that it intends to invest the necessary resources to keep class sizes in (pre-)primary schools manageable for teachers and provide sufficient capacity. In this way, it aims to ensure that linguistic interactions and the quality of teaching are enhanced.  

New expertise can be introduced through the recruitment of personnel with a Master’s degree and by creating additional possibilities for principals to attract other suitable profiles who can support and strengthen teachers. Flanders has recently published a research report on ‘Quality-Inspiring Pre-Primary Education’ (KIKO) and has initiated a new scientific study on a ‘Knowledge-Rich Curriculum in Pre-Primary Education’. 

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.