Curriculum, subjects, number of hours

The curriculum

The two years of the first stage (observation stage) have four objectives :

• to provide a wide-ranging basic education, allowing each pupil to acquire, at his or her own pace, all of the required skills ;
• to continuously observe and evaluate the abilities and behaviour of each pupil ;
• to help everyone to discover their capabilities and affinities ;
• to allow each pupil to choose the most fulfilling orientation for the second stage.

The Core Skills (decree on Core Skills of 26 April 1999, (décret "Socles de compétences")), present in a structured manner the basic competencies to be taught up to the end of the first stage of secondary education. The general objectives are identical for all schools and they complement the traditional curricula, responsibility for which lies with the controlling authorities, which for their part define what needs to be learnt in order for the core skills to be attained. The core skills distinguish eight mandatory subjects: French mathematics introductory science; modern languages, physical education, education through technology, artistic education, and introductory history and geography including introduction to social and economic life. In addition, there are courses in religious or ethical instruction. For each skill and at each of the phases, a requirement level is indicated: the practice of the skill may need to be introduced; the skill may need to be certified through evaluations; or it may need to be maintained.

At primary level, as from 1 September 2016, and at secondary level, as from 1 September 2017, a subject called Philosophy and citizenship has been implemented in the schools offering a choice between religion and moral education studies.  In the schools, that don't offer this choice, Philosophy and citizenship is given transversally, through all subjects, in the context of the lessons of the timetable for the equivalent of one hour (of 50 minutes) per week or at least 30 periods per year.

The main objective of both "Philosophy and Citizenship" decrees (June 2015 and July 2016, (décrets "philosophie et citoyenneté")) is the development of students' competences and knowledge related to philosophy, citizenship and democracy education. The main areas covered by the decrees include the curriculum and teacher education and professional development

The differentiated first stage, arranged for pupils who have not obtained the certificate of primary education (CEB), is intended to enable the pupils concerned to be integrated into the common first stage with a view to attaining the Core Skills set for 14-years-olds. In order to ensure this, the educational teams first help the pupils concerned to attain the Core Skills set for 12-year-olds.

For pupils who have failed to attain the Core Skills set for 14-year-olds at the end of the first stage, covered in three years, a specific differentiation and orientation year may be prescribed within the second stage (3 S-DO).

The timetable for the common first stage

During the first and second common years, the timetable consists of 28 periods per week of core curriculum and 4 periods per week of complementary activities.

The same weekly timetable, in 50-minute periods, is applicable in all institutions in 2017-2018. However, the timetable may be adapted to enable interdisciplinary projects to be carried out or remediation activities to be introduced.

The complementary activities to be chosen during the 1st stage do not constitute a prerequisite under any circumstances for any option at the second stage of secondary education. They must fall within one of the following seven fields :

• French. The complementary activities may include : introduction to Latin – possibly including an introduction to classical culture, theatre, etc. ;
• a modern language, which must be the same as that chosen in the common component. The complementary activities may include : conversation workshops, introduction to cultural aspects of the countries, regions or communities where the language in question is spoken ;
• sciences, mathematics. The complementary activities may include : introduction to IT, logic, etc. ;
• social and economic studies. The complementary activities may include : economic matters, civic life ;
• technological education. The complementary activities may include: technical drawing, agronomy, metalwork, woodwork, introduction to electricity, construction or services, hairdresser ;
• artistic activities (music, arts, …). To facilitate pupils’ social and personal development, complementary activities may be devoted to a more specific focus on an artistic field ;
• sporting activities. To facilitate pupils’ social and personal development, complementary activities may be devoted to the introduction to the practice of a sport.

The organisation of schedules for complementary activities is subject to various rules. The controlling authority or the institution’s director may include common periods in all schedules that are offered. The complementary activities may be wholly or partly replaced by :

• periods of musical education ;
• periods of sports training ;
• a specific curriculum aimed at ensuring that the pupil attains the competencies set for 14-year-olds.

One or two remedial periods devoted to French, mathematics and/or modern language I may be organised by the institution and made compulsory for certain pupils by the class council in addition to the 32 common periods.

The study of a second language (first foreign language) is compulsory for all pupils in the first stage. In the Brussels-Capital Region and the municipalities with special linguistic status, this language is obligatorily Dutch (or German). In the rest of the French community, this language can be Dutch, English, or German. In the first stage (observation stage) of secondary education, pupils continue studying the modern language which they started in primary education, as ‘modern language I’. Nevertheless, a modification to this choice can be made following a justified request from the parents and after an opinion from the admissions board and the CPMS. However, when pupils are enrolled in the first year, their parents or guardian may, after consulting with the head teacher, choose a different modern language course from the one taken during primary education. Under certain conditions, immersion education is authorised.

The timetable in the differentiated first stage and in the third specific year of differentiation and orientation (second stage)

The purpose of the integrated training is to enable the pupil to discover in concrete form the working world and trades and the training courses and qualifications that lead into them, and to work out with the pupil a life plan connected with an orientation, in both the transition and the qualification stream. A maximum of two-thirds of the periods reserved for this module may be devoted to participation in technical classes or vocational practice of grouped options within one or more sectors.

For any pupil oriented towards the additional year (2S) at the end of the 1st degree, the Class Council establishes at the beginning of the year an individual learning plan which defines, in particular, the weekly timetable followed by the pupil.

The timetable shall comprise from 30 to 32 weekly periods, including at least 2 periods devoted to physical education and 2 periods of religion/moral/philosophy and citizenship.

Teaching methods and materials

It will be recalled that the choice of teaching methods rests with the respective controlling authority.

Schemes relating to the whole of secondary education

Use of textbooks is not very widespread. The decision to use a textbook or not, and which one, is left to the teachers. Financial support is granted to pre-secondary and secondary schools for the purchase of approved  or labeled textbooks or collections of textbooks and software.

The law requires that education be free of charge.  It therefore regulates the authorized fees.  The loan of school books is allowed at real cost, in secondary education only.

Making the level of studies a reality, the references guides must help the teaching teams to put into practice the permanent formative assessment as well as the summative assessment :

• the Core skills ;
• the skills and knowledge required at the end of the transition stream ;
• the skills and knowledge required at the end of the qualification stream ;
• the training profiles.

Committees set up by the Government and made up of representatives of the various organising authorities are responsible for producing sets of standardised assessment tests, which correspond to the different References Guides :

• An Assessment Tools Committee for the Core Skills ;
• An Assessment Tools Committee for the transition stream ;
• An Assessment Tools Committee for the qualification stream.

Designed for schools and for teachers, these tools are made available to them, together with an accompanying guide.  They provide information about the types of questions that should be set for pupils and the expected level at given moments in the course of their studies.  They are provided as guidelines : These teaching aids can then be used by all schools organised or grant-aided by the French Community and teachers remain free to use them.

Two education information servers have been set up; one common to the different school networks and the other specific to schools organised by the French Community. A database of educational reference material is available online.

In the late 1990s, every secondary school was equipped with a multimedia centre, and thanks to agreements between the French Community, the Walloon Region, the federal government, and the access provider, every school was able to have access to the Internet under very favourable terms.

Significant investment had been made since 2011 in equipping schools in the French Community with the resources needed to foster student acquisition of strong ICT skills and promote innovative teaching practices, including providing internet connections for Walloon schools (EUR 35 million) and multimedia equipment for schools in the Brussels Capital Region (EUR 6 million).

Since 2011, under the initiative of Wallonia, the Walloon Government, the French Community and the German-speaking Community Governments have launched, respectively in 2011, 2013 and 2014, three calls for "Digital School" projects aimed at promoting innovative uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the benefit of education.

At the end of these first three calls for projects, no less than 300 pilot schools were selected on the basis of innovative projects experimenting with innovative pedagogical scenarios.

As part of the "Digital Wallonia" digital strategy 2016-2019, the Walloon Government, building on the experience acquired in this field, launched the "Digital School" scheme every year: a call for projects that supports about 500 projects per year.

In the Brussels-Capital Region, the "Fiber to the School" initiative (investment of 10 million euros) enabled the deployment of broadband connections in secondary schools between 2014 and 2019. On 13 August 2019, there were 151/177 connections.

In October 2018, the Digital Strategy for Education was adopted by the Government of the French Community.

By presenting 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.

The French Community thus joins the initiatives of the federal and regional governments aimed at developing a long-term digital vision for society.

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 :

Priority 1 - Defining digital content and resources for learning ;

Priority 2 - Supporting and training teachers and school leaders ;

Priority 3 - Defining the methods for equipping schools ;

Priority 4 - Sharing, communicating and disseminating ;

Priority 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.

On 02/04/2019, the educational resource platform e-classe.be was made available to the teachers of the French Community. e-classe.be aims to support teachers in the development of their lesson sequences. The aim of the platform is to provide a central, online location, bringing together quality, reliable and validated resources for their potential pedagogical exploitation.

The e-classroom platform joins the global dynamic generated in the French Community to accelerate the digital transition in education. This project, coordinated by the General Service of educational Digitalisation of the General Administration of Education in the French Community and by SONUMA (audiovisual archives) for the technical and audiovisual parts, is the result of an original collaboration with the RTBF (French-speaking Belgian radio and television) teams.

The digital strategy foresees that from 2020 onwards, digital skills will occupy a more important place than before in the common curriculum for all pupils. The aim will be to integrate digital skills as a learning object (digital education) but also 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 that students will 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 core curriculum.

Digital literacy and media literacy will also be approached through the learning domain relating to citizenship and human and social sciences.

From 2022, new reference frameworks adapted to the new streams in upper secondary education will also be created.

Each network has its own media education resource centre. A Media Education Council was created in 1995.

In addition to a new subject on Philosophy and Citizenship, responsible citizenship and development education have been the subject of several initiatives. An inter-network unit, ‘Democracy or Barbarism’ co-ordinates citizenship education issues.

Since 2007, a decree has imposed the organisation of interdisciplinary activities for a responsible and active citizenship at least once during each cycle or stage and the set up of participative structures for pupils (election of class representatives by their peers, councils of pupils representing specific cycles or stages). On 13 March 2009, the Government of the French Community passed a decree on the remembrance, particularly with respect to young people, of genocide crimes, crimes against humanity, war crimes and acts of resistance or resistance movements against the regimes responsible for such crimes (Décret relatif à la transmission de la mémoire des crimes de génocide, des crimes contre l'humanité, des crimes de guerre et des faits de résistance ou des mouvements ayant résisté aux régimes qui ont suscité ces crimes).

Finally, part of the timetable in secondary education may be organised in a modern language other than French, in the form of immersion learning.

Schemes specific to the first stage

Under the Decree on the Missions (24 July 1997) (décret "Missions") of School, each school must allow every pupil the opportunity to progress at his or her own pace, by practising formative assessment and differentiated pedagogy.

The reform of the first stage recommends truly differentiated teaching methods, which should enable all pupils to reach their maximum potential by setting objectives within their reach and allowing them to carry out their learning process at their own pace and according to specific methods.

An individual learning plan (PIA) must be devised for

• pupils who are in the Differentiated First Stage, i.e. pupils who didn't get the CEB at the end of the 6th year of primary education ;
• pupils who are in the 3rd specific year of differentiation and orientation (second stage), i.e. pupils, who after 3 years in the first stage, didn't get the CE1D.

The individual learning plan (‘plan individuel d’apprentissage’ - PIA) specifies for each pupil the skills to be attained at specific points, and the areas of progress and difficulty). The PIA must be devised by the guidance council, consisting of members of the relevant class council and a representative of at least each of the other class councils from the first stage (the competent Centre for Psychological, Medical and Social Services (CPMS) has the automatic right to participate). The guidance council meets at least three times per school year in order to draw up for each pupil the report covering the state of attainment of the Core Skills, to diagnose specific difficulties and, where necessary, to propose appropriate remedial measures. In view of its provisional character, the PIA is a tool to aid information, communication and collaboration within the educational team as well as a reference tool for various decisions, and in particular in the event of an appeal against a decision. It is devised for each pupil on the basis of his or her potential and needs. It is adjusted throughout his or her schooling. It sets out the specific objectives to be achieved within a defined period (cross-disciplinary and disciplinary skills). It is devised from a formative assessment viewpoint. As far as possible, it is defined together with the pupil and his or her parents.

Pupils who encounter difficulties in attaining the Core Skills may have complementary activities imposed on them: individualised remedial and/or educational support activities, catch-up work; restructuring of acquired knowledge as part of optional activities or the 2 weekly periods of remedial classes. The school has a certain latitude in organising such remedial periods. For example, they may temporarily replace optional courses for pupils in difficulty. Two to four periods per week of remedial and/or reorientation activities are recommended (on average a maximum of 2 hours per week for the entire school year). The choice of subjects is unrestricted. The class council decides what is appropriate.

During the specific year of differentiation and orientation (second stage), the pupil’s specific needs and the difficulties he or she experiences are taken into account in order to help with the further development of the competencies on which he or she has started working. In this way, he or she should be able to attain the level referred to earlier. The organisation of this year of differentiation and orientation is also intended to help each pupil to devise a personal plan which will enable him to continue his schooling. The personal plan is drawn up in conjunction with the relevant Centre for Psychological, Medical and Social Services (CPMS).