Schools in Flanders can now require children to repeat the third year of pre-school rather than leaving it up to the parents, a decision that will better prepare children to enter primary school, say experts
Starting from the 2026-27 school year, children in the third year of pre-school can be required to repeat the year. Currently, parents can choose to follow the pre-school’s advice to hold the child back or not, with the result that many kids are not ready to enter the first year of primary school, according to education experts.
Once children are in primary school, the decision to have a child repeat a year is with the school, not the parents. The largest percentage of schoolchildren in Flanders repeating a year can be found in the first-year, with 5.6% of them repeating the year.
This figure drops with every passing year, but the biggest drop is between the first and second year pupils. Only 3.2% of pupils in their second year are repeating it.
Parents choose to enrol them in the first year of primary school even if we advise against it
“It’s in that first year that the foundations are laid for learning – counting to 10, knowing all the letters, forming words,” explains Mieke Goos, an education professor at UHasselt. “Lacking those building blocks at the end of the first year is the main reason pupils are held back.”
Selina, a first-year teacher in Antwerp has to tell at least one child a year that they will not be moving on to the second year. “These are often pupils who we wanted to hold back in pre-school,” she says, “because we knew they weren’t ready for primary school.” But their parents “choose to enrol them in the first year of primary school even if we advise against it”.
Not all fun and games
The parents often see the difference between pre-school and primary school as very black and white, she continues, with pre-school seen as a playground. “That perception is unfortunate because the third year of pre-school is very focused on starting to learn.”
In the third year, kids learn how to listen, to do exercises, to sit at a workspace. “The new minimum standard for pre-schoolers will hopefully make it more clear that we also have expectations of pre-schoolers,” says Selina, “and that they can learn a great deal by repeating this third year.”