Belgium’s new education pact not as excellent as it appears | WPN World People News

The highly touted Pact of Excellence is under scrutiny as teacher unions express their concern that the effort to improve education in the country’s French-speaking region will harm the vocational sector and increase teacher workloads.

Consulted throughout the development of the reforms aimed at boosting the quality of French-speaking education, announced by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation's Minister of Education, Marie-Martine Schyns, the unions have varied opinions of the Pact, ranging from support under certain conditions to rejection due to questions concerning job losses and a lack of funding.

While Minister Schyns stated that she “understood the concerns” expressed regarding the Pact, she also insisted on the fact that “the status quo isn't sustainable”.

CGSP-Enseignement: “No! But...”

The Belgian trade union for public sector workers in education (CGSP-Enseignement) rejected the Pact on 27 January, demanding a series of clarifications and assurances, especially concerning the employment of teachers, to support it, and finally opted for a “no, but…” to the Pact.

The Community Chairman of the CGSP, Joseph Thonon, insisted on the fact that “there are good ideas, but we can't accept all the conclusions. There are still too many questions and uncertainties for us to be able to move forward, to say that we're ready to implement the Pact's conclusions.”

Although the union agrees with many initiatives in the Pact, Thonon says that teachers are critical of the document's lack of clarity.

Furthermore, the employment issues are cause for alarm among the teaching profession. The reform plans to extend the core curriculum by a year. Once the Pact of Excellence has been implemented, pupils will choose between the general and vocational option at the end of the third year of secondary education, instead of the second year, as is the currently the case. This would mean that vocational education is cut by a year.

“It's logical that teachers are worried about their jobs,” Thonon explains, “but also about the fate of their schools”.

The CGSP has also calculated that 1,500 jobs will ultimately disappear in the vocational sector, specialised education (where the aim is to limit the number of pupils in the future as much as possible) and in specialised centres dealing with psychological, medical and social issues. While the Pact mentions a transitional period before these jobs are eliminated, this point is lacking in detail, according to the CGSP. Its members also fear that the introduction of a core curriculum and the removal of the 7th year of vocational education will lead to a significant reduction in the number of pupils in certain schools, which could lead to their closure. They are also deeply concerned about the lack of a clear commitment to reducing the number of pupils per class.

“If these concerns are brushed aside, it will be at the risk of those who want to push it through...,” Thonon adds as a warning to the government. He also reiterated that “teachers are key players in schools. If the teachers don't agree to the Pact, it will never work”.

CSC-Enseignement: “No, unless...”

“As things currently stand, CSC-Enseignement doesn't agree,” the General Secretary of the Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens de l’Enseignement (CSC-Enseignement), Eugène Ernst, announced.

On 8 February, the CSC-Enseignement's Community Committee stated its position in favour of a "no, unless" – supported by 78 percent of CSC-Enseignement's members – regarding the current version of the Pact.

Ernst acknowledged that “CSC-Enseignement nevertheless approves the desire to make systemic changes to education, develop objectives to prevent pupils repeating the school year, dropping out of school, and the reinforcement of early childhood education, and insists on the importance of a genuine social diversity plan within our schools”.

His union has set out its conditions and is waiting for the public authorities to make clear commitments, especially concerning: jobs, the future of schools and institutions threatened by the envisaged structural changes; the core curriculum; learning and work conditions; collaborative work; and pre-service teacher training.

Furthermore, CSC-Enseignement considers that the active interest in this consultation “provides a real opportunity concerning the challenges of our schools”.

SLFP-Enseignement: No to such a vague plan

Even with 64 percent of members of the teachers' union Le Syndicat Libre de la Fonction Publique-Enseignement (SLFP-Enseignement) rejecting the Pact's conclusions, Chairwoman Masanka Tshimanga says that her trade union wished to “continue to take part in the debates that will be of utmost importance to the future of our education and teachers' careers”.

The union fears that the Pact's current form will force teachers to perform “more tasks with no extra funding”.

It is deeply concerned that the vast reform project to be implemented by 2030 is “too vague” and its funding “opaque and probably insufficient”, and regrets the planned job losses in vocational education, as well as the lack of information on the initial teachers' reform.

After discussions with their members, the Appel-CGSLB and Syndicat des enseignants de l'enseignement libre subventionné trade unions also decided to reject the Pact plan on 8 January.

Source: Education International