Brasschaat students, you suspect, rub their hands. Especially since some establishments told them that they should not come on Monday June 30, last official day of the school year in Flanders either Monday, which would only be devoted to the registration of new students.
“Every day counts”
When she was made aware of this decision, the Flemish Minister of Education, Zuhal Demir (N-VA) stung black anger. She saw it as an almost personal affront. One of the first decisions she made after her entry into office was to maintain Monday June 30 in the school calendar contrary to what his predecessor, Pascal Smet (Vooruit), had done in 2014. “Each day of class account“, had she replied to school directors who pointed out to her that many students would be absent on Monday 30 June floating-reservations for resorts are generally made by whole week. So seeing a commune whose title bourgmestre is the former Flemish minister Jan Jambon, n-VA as it, granting one day of leave to 10,000 students for such a light reason, it must have bound to make her. The authorities of the Antwerp commune explained that there had been a time trial in Brasschaat for 100 years, that it was therefore a real event for which Jan Jambon has been imposed by the organizers of the event.So that’s the problem, She said in regard to her former boss in the Flemish government. If schools must give way to a cycling race, we find ourselves a problem of mentality in society. Education first.“
The queues lie down in front of the Flemish secondary schools in Brussels
Too many white days
Moreover, Zuhal Demir was not content to scold the municipal authorities of Brasschaat. In an interview on Radio 2 (VRT) this week, she accused the entire education system to waste the days of learning. “”Parents write to me to say that their children have been at home since June 17 or 18. They don’t find it normal. Me neither. This means that students actually have 2.5 months of vacation. “The same day, The latest newsshe confided that, “of his time, there were only two or three days between the end of his exams and the delivery of the bulletins and not 10, or even more as today“. And to develop the idea of ​​reducing this interval.
To tell the truth, indignation is not new. Other Flemish ministers before she had deplored the length of the period between the end of the exams and the end of the school year. In the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, it is even each year that a debate is carried out on these too numerous “white days”. Valérie Glatigny, the French -speaking counterpart of Zuhal Demir, has in turn to declare the war with this waste open. In an interview with the DH this Friday, she promised a reduction in the number of white days for the start of the 2026-2027 school year.
Argued deliberations
But this good resolution is less easy to hold it than it seems – which is why the subject returns each year as a summer tube. In Flanders, schools have 30 days-or 60 half-days-for exams, corrections and deliberations. This number had been set to limit the time taken by exams. It will not be easy to reduce. A teacher almost remembers with nostalgia that, in the past, the establishments were satisfied with a phone call to warn the parents that their child had to redouble. Today, these decisions are the subject of neat and argued communication. Each decision must be justified because it can be the subject of an appeal. Rules are also imposed for deliberations. Teachers of each subject must be present at the class council, also a member of the Management. It is a puzzle for schools.
Students who are intended for the career of teacher often do not master the basic knowledge of a 12 -year -old student
