Leveling
In October 2023, the call for a democratic school (APED) had published a major survey on the subject, stressing that 65 % of the teachers interviewed in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation declared themselves “totally “or”rather agree“With the assertion that” The level of education drops“.
More specifically, 23.5 % of the 851 teachers interviewed estimated the level of requirements for “too easy” standards, while 32.5 % of these same teachers said they have found a drop in level of requirement since the start of their career.
Repetition
If we analyze the repetition figures in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, we see that rates have gradually decreased in the past fifteen years.
In 2008-2009, 60,952 students educated in compulsory education in the French Community had thus redoubled their year, a rate of 8.9 % all levels combined (with the exception of the seventh years). Fifteen years later, this rate therefore decreased, standing at 7 %, a total of 49,943 students in 2022-2023.
School delay: Is there a “repetition culture” in FWB?
If we dissect these figures by teaching basin, we note that it is in rather urban areas that the rates appear the highest: Hainaut Center and Hainaut Sud (8.1 %), Brussels (7.6 %) and Liège (7.4 %). While it is in Huy-Waremme (5 %), in Walloon Brabant (5.4 %) and in the province of Luxembourg (5.7 %) that they are the lowest.
Tool
As a reminder, external evaluations-whether they are certification or not-pursue two objectives today: on the one hand, it is a tool for piloting the education system, supposed to allow the identification of a danger; On the other hand, they certify that the students have the knowledge required to take the next step.
In other words, for their designers, these tests should not be used to sort the students, but to identify the difficulties.
Requirement
In the education committee session this Monday, June 30, the Minister of Compulsory Education, Valérie Glatigny (MR), once again recalled the intention of the MR-Engagues government to enhance the CEB success threshold: 50 % currently at 60 % with the arrival of the common trunk in sixth primary.
“Access the following year or to the following level supposes an effective mastery of learning and not a simple formal validation“, justified the minister. Before continuing:”It is a question of asserting the requirement of mastery of learning around the various external certification assessments […]to give new ambition to our teaching and to stop a form of leveling from below“. The minister still said that”This alignment will go hand in hand with a strengthening of personalized support“.
Redouble its secondary 1st will soon be allowed again
If we look at the curve of the evolution of the repetition rate in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the year 2020-2021 marks an anomaly. But no wonder: this is “COVID year“, that is to say that where the health crisis has largely impacted the organization of the school year, encouraging the authorities to call for” benevolence“Educational teams when sanctioning studies.
In addition, it will be recalled that the PS-Écolo-CDH government had validated, in April 2014, the abolition of repetition at the end of the second secondary from the start of the 2016 school year. What, again, impacting the overall figures for repetition. This prohibition will however be removed when the common trunk arrived in secondary school, recently confirmed the Minister-President, Élisabeth Degrysus (Le).
