Following up on the proposal of the Minister of Education, the Government adopted on 3 May 2019 new rules (Code) which extend the core curriculum in compulsory education by one year. From the first year of compulsory education until the end of the Core Curriculum, each student will receive a personalised support to learning. To achieve this objective, the Ministry will hire additional staff; the estimated budget for these measures will be around 60 Million euros.

This Code together with the personalised support aim at reducing of at least 50 % the total of school failure by 2030. The core curriculum covers now a diversity of fields and disciplines so that the assimilation of subjects will come from a combination of theoretical knowledge, know-how and their practical application. For example, French-language learning will be enriched with cultural and artistic education and also with the discovery of its etymological and cultural roots through an introduction to Latin. The acquisition of mathematical and scientific knowledge will go on during periods focused on theoretical learning and during periods devoted to technical and digital applications. The new common core will be more open and will try to develop a technological approach. This new approach takes more into account students' diversity and mix theoretical learning with practical achievements.

Although the Certificate of primary education (Certificat d'études de base = CEB) will always be awarded by the Class Council at the end of the 6th year of primary school, an external certification test is now introduced at the end of the 3rd year of secondary education and will lead to the Common Core Certificate (Certificat du Tronc Commun = CTC).

Two new periods of ‘personalized accompaniment’ will be included in the schedule period, and the teachers’ supervision will be reinforced with the purpose of better differentiating the learning.

As early as possible, a pedagogical team will define for each year the remediation and success measures. The pedagogical team with the involvement of students and their parents will also regularly evaluate and readjust this system.

At the end of the school year, the pedagogical team may decide if the students should repeat or not the year, depending on their capacity to overcome their difficulties. However, the year repetition should only be used as a last resort.

Source: Eurydice Belgium – French Community Unit