Personalized support in Education is considered as crucial to meet the objectives of improving student performance while taking into account the needs of each individual and prevent school inequalities and repetition. Following the legislative proposal of the Minister of Education, the Government of the French Community approved a decree on the implementation of differentiation and personalized support systems for primary and for secondary education.

The pilot project was launched with the initial purpose to develop the most suitable tools and methods for implementing two additional periods – in the timetable of all pupils as of 09/2021 – of personalized support as part of the gradual application of the Common Core curriculum.

In the primary education cycle, this pilot project was carried out in 85 schools from 02/2019 to 06/2020.  It aimed to strengthen differentiation in the learning of reading in 3rd pre-primary, 1st and 2nd primary.  

In secondary education, the project took place from 09/2019 to 06/2020 and aimed to test differentiation and remediation tools and practices in 36 schools, applicable both in classroom activities and during periods specifically dedicated to personalized support.

In order to carry out this experiment, schools benefited from additional resources and from a dedicated evaluation of all the elements, which was carried out by a University research team.  The Government decided to extend this pilot experiment for another academic year.

In concrete terms, for both primary and secondary education, the Government continues to provide the resources in 2020-2021 to carry out these pilot projects. For pre-primary and primary education, the aim is to inject additional 1,500 class periods, as follows:

• 500 periods are reserved for schools previously enrolled in the project initiated in 2019, in order to ensure a follow-up and transition before the arrival of the Common Core in first and second levels of primary schools. These schools will also benefit from the monitoring of two university researchers in order to continue the collection of information and to allow the implementation of structural support within the framework of the Common Core;
• 1,000 periods will be used to relaunch the pilot experiment in about fifty new schools, with an extension to basic skills, whereas previously only reading was targeted.

For secondary education, the experiment is continued with the same schools. It supports the 115 disciplinary teams – of the 36 participating schools – in the appropriation, construction and testing of tools that make it possible to resolve recurrent obstacles to learning.  It also includes two periods of personalized support in the grid for all pupils instead of two periods of complementary activities in the first common year. During these periods, supervision will be reinforced by 50% in order to create the conditions for a more flexible approach to the pupils.

Source: Eurydice Unit Belgium – French Community