Valérie Glatigny wants to modify the school decree before 2025 in order to guarantee a common week off between Flemish, French-speaking and German-speaking students, in the face of current shifts in school calendars.
The Minister of Education of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB), Valérie Glatigny (MR), raised the idea of modifying the decree on school schedules.
This reform would aim to correct the discrepancies in the calendars of the different Communities in the country, which create difficulties for families.
During an intervention in the parliamentary committee, she stressed the need to move towards legislative modification, explaining that for legal reasons, the changes should be implemented before April 2025.
A problematic desynchronization
Since the start of the 2022 school year, the FWB has applied a new school calendar, with an alternating schedule of seven weeks of classes followed by two weeks of vacation.
However, this system has not been adopted by Flanders or the German-speaking Community, which leads to a desynchronization of holiday periods.
As a result, French-speaking students no longer necessarily share the same vacation periods as their Flemish or German-speaking classmates, which complicates organization for families whose children are educated in different Communities.
For the 2026-2027 school year, for example, no common week off is planned between the three Communities, with the exception of the Christmas holidays.
Similar situations will occur again for the 2028-2029, 2031-2032 and 2034-2035 school years.
A new decree for more flexibility
In order to remedy this situation, Minister Glatigny plans to review the current alternation of blocks of classes and holidays in the FWB school calendar.
The objective would be to guarantee at least one week of vacation common to all Communities between January and June.
The minister must soon consult with her administration to define the terms of this reform, thus hoping to alleviate the organizational constraints encountered by families.
Society teaching school school rhythms
