Curriculum, subjects and number of hours

Subjects required by law

The decree on the missions (24th July 1997) of the school does not define subjects, but domains within which competencies are to be developed. Thus, priority must be given to the teaching of reading centred on the mastery of meaning, to the production of written and oral communication, as well as to the mastery of the basic mathematical tools within the framework of problem solving.

The other educational activities are structured which are part of the compulsory common core : physical and health education, language awareness in the 1st and 2nd years of primary school, modern language learning from the 3rd to 6th years, cultural and artistic education, French, mathematics, science, manual, technical, technological and digital training, historical, geographical, economic and social training, philosophy and citizenship education, and philosophy courses.

Within this framework, the references guides of the core curriculum distinguish eight learning domains : French, arts and culture ; modern languages; mathematics, sciences and technology ; human sciences, education to philosophy and citizenship, religion or ethics ; physical and health education. And three cross-curricular domains : creativity, commitment and entrepreneurship ; learning to learn and making choices; learning to find one's bearings.

The curricula are the responsibility of the Organizing Authorities, but must make it possible to achieve the expectations of the new references guides of the Common Core.

Time to be devoted to each subject

In primary education, the weekly timetable includes 28 to 29 periods of lessons (50-minute).  In this volume, two periods of physical and health education (including swimming) must be organised every week from the first to the fourth year and 3 periods in the fifth and sixth years, as well as two periods of religion/ethics courses, and zero to five periods of modern language courses (depending on the grade and the geographical area, see below), as well as the courses and activities relating to other subjects, for which the amount of time is indicative.

Courses in modern languages other than French

By virtue of the Code for Basic Education and Secondary Education, the teaching of a first foreign language is compulsory in all schools, starting in the 3rd year of primary school. It is taught for 2 periods a week in Wallonia. In the Brussels-Capital Region and in the bilingual municipalities, known as “special linguistic status”, students benefit from 3 language periods per week in the 3rd and 4th year of primary studies and 5 hours per week in the 5th and 6th years. This instruction can include review exercises for other subjects in the curriculum. In the Brussels-Capital Region, the first foreign language is Dutch. In the Walloon municipalities classified as 'on the language border' (Comines-Warneton, Mouscron, Flobecq and Enghien), the first foreign language is also Dutch. In the municipalities of Malmédy, Waimes, Baelen, Plombières and Welkenraedt, the first foreign language may be Dutch or German. A special scheme is provided for the municipalities surrounding Brussels. In the rest of Wallonia, schools can choose to propose Dutch, English or German to students. The student then engages in learning the modern language he/she has chosen and will retain this choice until the end of the third year of secondary school.

Linguistic and sign language immersion

On the authorisation of the government in the case of education organised by the French Community, or on the initiative of the controlling authority in the case of grant-aided education, a school or site may, under certain conditions, provide certain courses either in a modern language other than French or in sign language, by organising immersion instruction.

The decree of 11th May 2007 regulates immersion education. A school providing pre-secondary education which organises immersion learning offers the possibility of learning in this way either during the final year of pre-primary education and the six years of primary education, or during the last four years of primary education. In a primary school which does not provide pre-primary education, immersion learning may start in the first year.

Between 8 and 21 periods are taught in the target language from the 3rd year of pre-primary education to the 2nd year of primary education. From the 3rd to the 6th year of primary education, the timetable depends on the year in which immersion began :

• Pupils who started immersion in the 3rd year of pre-primary or 1st year of primary education : If part of the weekly timetable is dedicated to immersion learning, that part consists of a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 18 periods ;
• Pupils who started immersion in the 3rd year of primary education : If part of the weekly timetable is dedicated to immersion learning, that part consists of a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 18 periods.

Immersion learning seeks to achieve the following :

• in terms of the lessons and educational activities provided in the immersion language, the attainment of the competencies defined in the references guides of the common core ;
• in terms of the immersion language, the attainment of the oral and written communication competencies in that language defined in the references guides of the common core.

If a school or site organises immersion learning, this is mentioned in the school plan. Enrolment in immersion learning may not be subject to any prior selection.

Language Awareness

Within the context of the Pact for Excellence in Teaching, in order to define the learning pathway of the new common core, knowledge and skills deemed as essential have been identified. Among these, great attention was paid to language learning, both for its contribution in terms of openness to the world and its potential for socio-professional integration. This is why the common core curriculum provides for the strengthening of modern language learning by starting the teaching of a first modern language from 3rd primary and a second modern language in 2nd secondary, throughout the French Community. This is why, from the start of the 2020 schoolyear, from the first pre-primary to the second primary schoolyear, the permanent teacher is expected to teach his or her pupils Language Awareness for one period per week. (This period may be split up).

Language Awareness aims to open up to a diversity of languages. In this sense, it is not limited to the languages traditionally taught in schools in the French Community. Thus, in parallel with its linguistic dimension, the Language Awareness makes it possible to gradually open up to other cultures, contributing to the aim of a more tolerant and open society.

Since the start of the 2020 schoolyear, the brochure "Éveil aux langues - Balises de progression et ressources pédagogiques de M1 à P2" (Language Awareness - progress markers and teaching resources from M1 to P2 (first pre-primary to the second primary schoolyear) offers each teacher help in implementing language learning by providing a learning path, teaching methods and teaching resources to be practised with pupils, as well as numerous internet links to activities adapted to the age and interests of these pupils.

This brochure is intended to complement the Initial skills references guide, the disciplinary references guide for the common core and the references guide for modern languages.

Ethics and religion courses

Every child of compulsory school age has the right to be taught religion or ethics at the Community’s expense. In every site, a course is organised as soon as a pupil enrols, in accordance with the Schools Accord (law of 29th May 1959). Each pupil’s weekly timetable includes two periods of religion or ethics. The ethics teacher is a staff member, who is responsible for ethics courses. The religion teacher is either a minister or a representative of a minister of one of the recognised denominations.

Since 2015, a Decree has established a dispensation mechanism for religion and moral studies in the framework of the Alternative Pedagogical Framework.

Religious instruction is understood as the teaching of the religion (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Islamic, or Orthodox) and the moral values inspired by that religion. Schools run by public authorities offer, up to the end of compulsory education, the choice between courses in one of the five recognised religions, in non-denominational ethics, or in the Alternative Pedagogical Framework. The choice must be stated in a declaration signed by the parents, guardian or person to whom the child’s care is entrusted.

Since 1 September 2016 for those primary schools offering a choice between religion and moral studies, at least one of the two lessons per week allocated to these subjects should be devoted to 'philosophy and citizenship'. Instruction on this subject is part of the compulsory curriculum. In the other schools, the content and objectives of philosophy and citizenship must be acquired through all subjects.

Physical development

The time allocated to physical education is the result of a desire to ensure a balance between the different school activities and an optimal use of physical education and sports within a global education. Schools should offer a range of activities allowing everyone to exercise a choice. The right of each child to have different physical abilities should be recognised. Physical and health education courses cover two to three periods per week. It is part of a perspective of the overall development of the student by aiming at the deployment of motor and socio-motor efficiency, but also of knowledge, skills and attitudes allowing a correct management of his/her health and well-being. It is a response to an increasingly sedentary society, including in leisure. Through the pleasure of movement, one of the challenges of the physical and health education course is to enable students to acquire a set of tools aimed at adopting a healthy and active lifestyle in and out of school throughout their lives. The course of physical and health education participates in personal development by leading the student to integrate into the action the values of commitment, solidarity, equality, self-respect and others in their differences.

Media studies

Television and the media are a source of enrichment, knowledge, openness to others and to the world; and they are an integral part of young people’s lives. Therefore, they should be used to advantage and as a positive factor in education. Beyond the use of audiovisual equipment as teaching aids, two important objectives can be identified: on the one hand, learning to be an active spectator, an autonomous explorer, and a media communication player; on the other hand, using the audiovisual image as a technology at the service of intelligence-building.

Primary schools have had the possibility of receiving a cyber-media centre, and of connecting to the Internet at preferential rates, but no course is specifically oriented to the utilisation of these facilities.

A media studies brochure makes it possible to list, in the references guides, all the expectations that may relate to media studies.

Manual, technical, technological and digital training

Among the specific disciplines provided for in the pupils’ schedule, we find, from the 1st primary to the 3rd secondary, the “Manual, technical, technological and digital training”. During this course, students are led to produce concrete achievements highlighting gestures of daily or professional life. These achievements, a source of motivation and pleasure to learn, are all opportunities to observe, to experiment, to discover, to question, to think individually or collectively, to make technical gestures, to develop one’s creativity. Revealed affinities can contribute to the construction of a personal orientation project. His/her concrete achievements offer the student the opportunity to highlight new resources and skills, and to develop other skills. This approach is also intended to improve one’s representations of manual, technical, technological and digital professions and to open them to all. 
The development of knowledge, skills and competences helps to make the student more and more autonomous, able to make wise choices that take into account individual, social, economic and ecological impacts. Learning also involves raising awareness of the risks and dangers associated with the working environment.

PECA

The Decree on books 1 and 2 of the Code for Basic Education and Secondary Education, and establishing the common core of 03/05/2019, establishes the pathway of cultural and artistic education, in short PECA. It aims at enabling each student, with a view to cultural democratisation and cultural development :

1. to access cultural life, to meet works, artists and cultural practices, and to go to cultural places ;
2. acquire knowledge, and skills in cultural and artistic matters, with a view to developing critical thinking and personal expression ;
3. to experiment with individual and collective cultural and artistic practices and to take an active part in cultural life ;
4. to access and participate in the diversity of cultural and artistic lives and to familiarise oneself with cultural expressions from different horizons, expressing different representations of the world.

The cultural and artistic education pathway also contributes to :

1. the fight against school failure by diversifying pedagogical practices ;
2. to raise awareness among the actors of the teaching of the interest of a cultural and artistic approach, continuous and plural in its diversity of expression and its interdisciplinary dimension ;
3. to strengthen and enhance collaborations between cultural operators and educational actors.

EVRAS

According to Article 1.4.1-2 of the Code for Basic Education and Secondary Education, “the French Community, the organising authorities and the educational teams shall ensure (...) that the school educates to the respect for the personality and convictions of each person, to the duty to prohibit both moral and physical violence, to relational, emotional and sexual life and to establish democratic practices of responsible citizenship within the school”. 
First of all, with the new references guides of the common core, each student receives content specific to the education of relational, emotional and sexual life throughout his or her school pathway from the 1st pre-primary to the 3rd secondary (see brochure). The EVRAS is not the subject of a single disciplinary reference, but its components are addressed each year in several references guides of the common core.
This generalisation is then reinforced by the intervention of certified external operators who complement and develop these learning sequences by holding EVRAS devices in line with the themes and tags of the Content Guide. This complementary intervention, already provided for in the Code for Basic Education and Secondary Education, is now made compulsory at certain stages of the school pathway.

Teaching methods and materials

General guidelines

The official texts impose or recommend certain practices for all educational institutions.

A new tool, the DAccE (Dossier d'Accompagnement de l'Élève = Pupil’s Accompanying File), will be introduced in September 2023 for pupils from the 1st year of Pre-Primary education to the 4th year of Primary education in mainstream education. It will be gradually applied to all students until the end of secondary education. In specialised education, it will be introduced for pupils in Pre-Primary and Maturité 1. The DAccE will then be gradually extended to all pupils enrolled in ordinary and specialised compulsory education.
The DAccE is a key tool in the new core curriculum implemented as part of the Pact for Excellence in Teaching. The aim of the core curriculum is to generalise the 'progressive' approach to learning difficulties so that it benefits all pupils who need it. In concrete terms, each pupil will benefit from personalised monitoring and support, enabling them to receive more sustained and tailored attention. If a pupil encounters persistent difficulties, support is stepped up. The function of the DAccE is to enable persistent difficulties to be identified, the support put in place to be monitored, evaluated and adjusted. The DAccE is therefore designed to enable educational teams to monitor the child's progress and ensure continuity of learning. It is also accessible to parents, enabling them to talk to the educational team and monitor their child's needs as closely as possible.
The DAccE is a digital tool. It is individual and will accompany all pupils from Pre-primary to the end of secondary school, in mainstream and special education, even if they change schools or move to another level. 
Two initial sections will be filled in for all pupils : administrative data (identification, parents' contact details, etc.) and educational history (years attended and schools, qualifications obtained). On the other hand, a third section relating to educational monitoring will only be completed for pupils for whom persistent difficulties, or even a disorder, have been identified. This section includes a "summary report" setting out the persistent difficulties observed in a pupil and the support measures taken to overcome them. These difficulties may relate to different aspects of learning : cognitive, language, etc. The summary report also indicates the child's strengths, which teachers can build on. Schools will use harmonised and common wording to complete the DAccE. The DAccE contains neither assessment results nor disciplinary information : the DAccE is neither a report nor a class diary. A fourth section will be used to activate various procedures linked to the school career, in particular the procedures for applying to keep a child in the same year.

Every school must enable each pupil to progress according to his or her own pace of learning, by implementing differentiated teaching methods and formative assessment.

The use of information and communication technology as a tool for development and access to autonomy is recommended.

A number of ministerial circular letters recommend group activities; learning situations that encourage behavioural patterns suited for decision-making on the sequence of tasks, negotiation on the nature of the work to be done, and interaction among pupils; a general, functional, participative, and differentiated teaching method; maintaining stability of the teaching staff, collaboration among teachers, and dialogue with parents.

A decree dated of 12th January 2007 imposes the organisation of interdisciplinary activities for a responsible and active citizenship at least once during each cycle as well as the set up of participative structures for pupils (the election of class representatives by their peers and councils of pupil representatives consisting of the class representatives of a cycle or a stage) from the 5th year of primary education.

The curricula and the options of the Organizing Authorities

Under the Schools Accord (law of 29th May 1959), each controlling authority is free as regards pedagogical methods. The pedagogical plan defines the pedagogical aims and methodological choices which enable a controlling authority to implement its educational plan. The school plan translates the controlling authority’s pedagogical plan into concrete terms in the light of its specific context.

Curricula are the province of the pouvoirs organisateurs. These curricula must be adapted to the general objectives of education and consistent with the requirements of the Decree on the missions of the school. Freedom in pedagogical methods entitles every controlling authority to submit its own curriculum for approval by the Minister. A Curriculum Commission verifies whether the curricula, both for the French Community and for the grant-aided networks, make it possible to achieve the expectations of the references guides.

The curricula propose learning situations and suggest course contents, which may be either compulsory or optional. They provide methodological orientations. Such learning situations, course contents and methodological orientations must make it possible to achieve the expectations of the references guides.

The Government of the French Community (for the schools that it organises), the Council of Municipalities and Provinces (for the public grant-aided pouvoirs organisateurs that so desire) and certain municipalities (e.g. Brussels and Verviers) use (complete or partial) curricula reflecting the expectations of the references guides and approved by the Government.

Certain schools practise or are inspired by particular teaching methods (Freinet, Decroly, etc.).

Teaching materials

The decision of whether or not to use a textbook, and its choice, are left to the teachers’ or the controlling authority’s discretion. The use of textbooks is not very widespread, in particular for scientific and mathematical disciplines. To encourage their use by educational teams, the decree of 19 May 2006 introduced a special budgetary programme for the acquisition by the écoles fondamentales of the French Community of textbooks which have received conformity approval. A textbook or set of textbooks may be submitted once a year to the Steering Committee with a view to gaining conformity approval.

On the other hand, in digital terms, the Manolo grant allows schools to acquire digital textbooks, school software or even an online educational platform for the teacher or student.

During the period of compulsory education, access to education is free of charge, and no school fees may be charged (including for the purchase of textbooks).

The educational services of the French Community and those of the different Organising Authorities for grant-aided schools produce teaching aids, which are designed to ensure attainment of the expectations of the references guides. Every school organised or grant-aided by the French Community is entitled to use these teaching aids.

The Digital Strategy for Education, adopted by the Government of the French Community in October 2018, presents an integrated vision of the digital transition for compulsory education in the French Community. The Strategy underlines the need to invest in digital skills from compulsory education onwards, to empower and empower all citizens.
Conceived by the General Administration of Education, based on the report of the "digital transition" working group and the guidelines adopted within the framework of the Pact for Excellence in Teaching, the Digital Strategy for Education in the French Community identifies five complementary lines of action :

• Axis 1 - Defining digital content and resources for learning ;
• Axis 2 - Supporting and training teachers and school leaders ;
• Axis 3 - Defining the methods for equipping schools ;
• Axis 4 - Sharing, communicating and disseminating ;
• Axis 5 - Developing digital governance.

The Strategy makes the digital transition a cross-cutting issue in several areas of the Pact for Excellence in Teaching : the new reinforced core curriculum, the transformation of the teaching profession, the management of the classroom heterogeneity, collaborative work, support and training, the dissemination of pedagogical innovation, the decompartmentalization of schools and classes, and the management of the school system and schools.

Since its adoption, the health crisis has shown the importance and relevance of the Digital Strategy and has led to the acceleration of the implementation of actions foreseen in Axis 2, 3 and 4 of the Strategy. 
As foreseen in the Digital Strategy, digital skills will become more important than before in the common curriculum for all pupils, acting both digital skills as a learning object (digital education) but also digital as a support for other subjects (digital literacy). Digital literacy will require active practice in all subjects, with each subject area having a specific use of digital technology to which students need to be introduced to. Furthermore, reflecting the importance of new technologies in all production processes, digital literacy will play a key role within the learning domain that brings together mathematics, sciences, manual, technical and technological skills, gradually raising awareness of computer sciences, including algorithmic sciences, from the 3rd primary year of the new common core. In addition, digital literacy and media literacy are now also part of the learning domain relating to citizenship and human and social sciences. To develop their abilities to teach such digital knowledge and skills, teachers benefit from continuous professional training reformed in 2021 where digital has become a priority focus. In addition, the “Pix” self-diagnosis and digital skills development tool has been deployed since January 2023.

The educational resource platform e-classe.be was made available to the teachers of the French Community on 02/04/2019, then saw a major improvement with a new interface on 24/01/2022. e-classe.be aims to support teachers in the development of their lesson sequences. The platform provides a central, online location, bringing together thousands of quality, reliable and validated resources for their potential pedagogical exploitation.
These resources come from a collaboration with partners internal and external to the General Administration of Education in the French Community who produce digital resources, in particular new resources relating to innovative elements of the common core. These partners include the General Inspection Service, RTBF (French-speaking Belgian Radio and Television) and SONUMA (audiovisual archives), the consortiums of the common core that bring together dozens of teachers and researchers from the various universities and universities of the French Community, etc. Since 18/10/2024, the e-class platform also offers spaces for sharing and co-creating digital resources by and for teachers. This project, coordinated by the General Service of educational Digitalisation of the General Administration of Education in the French Community, which also produces digital resources related to education through and to digital, in collaboration with ETNIC and RTBF for the technical part.

Concerning equipment, the programme of the Walloon Region “Digital Wallonia for Education” covers the period 2022-2026 and has two components. The first part consists of the provision of a portfolio of points valid for the entire duration of the programme and which allows the acquisition of equipment made available through a central purchasing body. The number is established with a minimum of points increased by the number of students. The second component consists of a renewal of internal connectivity of 1 350 school locations by June 2026.

Organisation of pupils into groups

The ways in which pupils are organised into groups are not covered by any centralised regulations.
Apart from classes which work in mixed-age groups (in particular, classes of 5 to 8 year olds) and which use individualisation techniques, primary education is largely undifferentiated: all pupils in the same class are often faced with the same activities.

In certain classes, other methods are used:

• group work for tasks involving discovery activities (history, geography, and science) ;
• differentiated work on assignments: reading or mathematics work is most often handled this way ;
• certain computer programmes (software) were introduced a few years ago and their use is spreading, thereby enabling a certain degree of differentiation in teaching or correction.

Homework

In the face of some abuses, a decree has defined and given a legal status to the limits to be respected as regards homework. Only the reading and presentation of activities carried out during school time to parents and others are authorised during the first two years of primary school. Afterwards, the pouvoirs organisateurs have the option, but not the obligation, to set homework adapted to the level of education. Homework assignments must prolong learning already carried out, take into account the individual characteristics of pupils, and be the object of rapid assessment of exclusively formative character. It must be possible to carry out these assignments without the assistance of an adult, and if reference documents are necessary, it must be ensured that all pupils have access to them. Lastly, pupils should have a reasonable deadline to carry out these assignments, and their length should not exceed 20 to 30 minutes per day, depending on the year of study.