56,000 families affected
In fact, school is very expensive for all parents, she laments. “The only thing that is free, for the moment, from kindergarten to third grade, are school supplies, that is to say the contents of the school bag and the pencil box.”
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This system should have been extended, at the next school year (in August 2025), to fourth primary pupils. But the new government at the head of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation has decided to freeze this progression (making a saving of 4 million euros in the process). “Result: the parents of children who entered the school system in 2019, who have always known it to be free, will suddenly have to pay for school supplies when their child begins fourth grade.”
This represents 56,000 children today in third primary for whom school fees will increase next year, calculates the League of Families. “It’s huge!”
Suspension of inspection missions
This will be particularly difficult for families in financial difficulties, underlines Madeleine Guyot. Especially since to this is added the suspension, since September 2024, by the Minister of Education, of inspection missions responsible for verifying compliance with the legislation on school fees in schools. A decision taken at the request of management already overwhelmed by administrative work at this time. These inspections have not resumed until now.
gull“There shouldn’t even be a debate: everything is on the table for the minister to take action.”
“It’s really problematic, continues the boss of the League of Families. All parties in the French-speaking parliament, from the MR to the PTB, had nevertheless called for a systematization of controls on compliance with the legislation on school fees.”
Before the establishment of this service, the administration had only a partial view of the problem: families in precarious situations, already requesting financial assistance from management to pay the sometimes exorbitant costs of schooling, did not bring up the problems.
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The vagueness of so-called optional fees
Since 2021, multi-year evaluation missions have been carried out: 2,218 schools were visited, or 82% of French-speaking educational establishments. “And what do we see? That more than 7 out of 10 schools do not fully respect the law!”
The regulations are complex. Alongside the authorized costs (copy of administrative documents, transport and entry costs to the swimming pool or cultural activities, supervision of lunchtimes, morning and evening daycare, school trips, etc.) that schools can require from parents , there are so-called optional fees that can be claimed, but not imposed. This is often the case with group purchases for school textbooks or, in secondary school, the purchase of a computer presented as “obligatory” so that the child can follow his or her schooling. The same goes for information on these rules and estimates of fees which should be detailed at the start of the year and invoiced each quarter. Evaluation reports show that this is far from always being the case.
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“The inspection did its job well!”
“In fact, the inspection did its job well. Its reports are crystal clear: they show clearly that non-compliance with the legislation on school fees is the norm and not the exception, exclaims Madeleine Guyot. There shouldn’t even be a debate: everything is on the table for the minister to take action. We are demanding that, in one way or another, it take the bull by the horns to perpetuate the inspection of school fees in view of all the irregularities.”
The League of Families also demands that the minister extend free school supplies to primary four – one of the inspection’s recommendations.
“It is a measure which is considered positive by school directors, even if it creates a certain burden for them: they themselves must call on purchasing centers, organize themselves so that the students receive the necessary equipment, etc. But they also recognize the positive impact on improving the school climate, the relationship between the child, his parents and the school, and equality of opportunity…”
