After primary education, new minimum standards are also to be introduced in Flemish secondary education. The Flemish Government has approved the proposal put forward by Education Minister Zuhal Demir (Flemish nationalist N-VA). The new minimum standards will come into force in September 2029: by then, the first cohort of pupils to have completed primary education under the new minimum standards will be moving on to secondary school.
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Secondary schools to get new minimum targets: bar for Dutch and maths set high
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The revised minimum targets for secondary education will be set on a subject-by-subject basis and will no longer be organised around 16 broad, cross-curricular key competences. The so-called ‘overlapping target frameworks’ will be phased out.
New minimum targets have already been introduced in primary education. There, the emphasis is more on knowledge and clear expectations for pupils. Particular attention is being paid to Dutch and mathematics.
The same priorities are also being emphasised in the revised minimum objectives for secondary education. The aim is to raise the standard of education once again. “We want to achieve a knowledge-rich curriculum for all pupils whilst significantly simplifying the educational objectives,” the people behind the project say.
Education Minister Zuhal Demir: “Education must form a single, coherent whole. What you learn in one year must form the basis for the next. So, when the first pupils enter secondary school in September 2029 with their new knowledge, secondary schools must be ready to build on it.”
Raising the bar for Dutch and maths
As with the revised minimum targets for primary education, there will be a greater emphasis on knowledge in secondary education. The various subjects will once again take centre stage.
The educational objectives centred on 16 broad key competences will be phased out, to be replaced by specific objectives for each subject area, such as Dutch, maths, history and science.
In addition, some general objectives, such as citizenship and financial literacy, will be retained. However, the foundation of these objectives is the knowledge that pupils need to build up across various subjects.
“We have sometimes made education a little too complicated. We talk about 16 key competences, whilst ultimately, it is about something very simple: what do our children need to know and be able to do in various subjects such as history, maths or Dutch? We are simplifying the rules, without lowering the bar,” says Minister Demir.
“Knowledge is not an outdated concept. Those who know a lot can understand things better, think more critically and make independent choices. That is exactly what we want to equip our young people with.”
The bar is set particularly high for Dutch and maths. By the end of the first grade, every pupil must achieve the set minimum targets for these two subjects, although the class council still has the final say.
For other subjects, schools must ensure that their pupils, as a group, sufficiently meet the minimum targets.