“Flanders is a knowledge economy where brains are the main raw material and education is therefore the main source of nutrition,” says Hasselaar Frank Dewael (40), the first successor on the Open VLD electoral list for the Flemish Parliament in the elections of June 9. “Although Flanders spends a lot of money on education from a European perspective – almost 16 billion euros per year or 29 percent of its budget – the quality continues to deteriorate year after year.”
Limburg provincial councilor, former national youth chairman and first successor on the liberal parliamentary list Philippe Nys (30) from Maaseik, finds this alarming. “The top performers are decreasing and the low performers are increasing. In a knowledge economy, this worrying trend should set off all alarm bells, especially since the backlog will continue to affect university banks.”
Pillarization
The reasons for the decline of Flemish education are manifold. “But the teacher shortage is one of the crucial factors. However, official statistics show that Flanders has proportionally more teachers than most European countries. While the number of students fell by 7 percent over the past ten years, the number of teachers increased by 14 percent, to 165,962 in the 2022-2023 school year,” says Dewael.
“And so we have to name the elephant in the room: pillarization,” Nys adds. “In Flanders we have Catholic schools, GO! schools and municipal/provincial schools. They often offer identical directions. It is no longer possible to explain that the school on one side of the street has insufficient hours for a full-time teacher, while on the other side, in a school in a different network, students have to study due to a teacher shortage.”
According to Dewael, we are paying a price today for the freedom of education that is enshrined in our Constitution. “In practice, this freedom of education is translated into pillarization and compartmentalization, where the power of each umbrella organization seems to be more important than the quality of education.”
After consultations in the educational field, the young liberal duo has developed a new education plan for Limburg. This contains four concrete measures:
1. Cross-network collaboration
Today, a teacher must be active within the same (school) umbrella organization. Teaching in private and formal education at the same time is not possible.
“Cooperation across political and socio-economic lines has made the Limburg reconversion a success story over the past three decades. In the same spirit, Limburg can be a natural partner for the rollout of a pilot project of cross-network collaboration: offer small courses together and let the corresponding teachers for these subjects fly over the networks,” Dewael suggests.
According to Nys, Limburg has more than 60,000 students in full-time secondary education, accounting for 500 to 750 million euros in Flemish resources. “An efficiency gain of 3 to 5 percent through cross-network collaboration therefore yields 25 million euros per year. With these resources, Limburg can develop UHasselt into a fully-fledged university. This is important for three reasons. One: compared to the Flemish average, the gross domestic product (GDP) per Limburger is 19 percent lower and labor productivity is 14 percent lower. Two: the progression of Limburg young people to university education is still 3 percent below the Flemish average. And three: Limburg companies employ only half the Flemish average of university employees.”
2. More STEM fields
Hasselt University must strengthen itself with STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). “This can create a new ecosystem that further strengthens the knowledge economy in Limburg. Moreover, figures show that civil engineers are much quicker to set up companies, and Limburg needs that,” he said.
3. More graduate programs
According to Dewael and Nys, Limburg higher education must also continue to focus on practice-oriented graduate courses, because they provide an answer to the shortage on the labor market. “For students who do not progress to a bachelor’s degree program or people who want to reorient their career, graduate programs are crucial,” says the duo. “The new Flemish government must finally put an end to the underfunding of these courses.”
4. Lawful share
Limburg does not receive its rightful share from Flemish financing sources. Nys: “Limburg cities and municipalities receive significantly fewer resources from the Municipal Fund. Moreover, projects such as the Flemish Culinary Center (38 million euros) and the new Muhka (130 million euros) in Antwerp are financed too eagerly, to the detriment of the much-needed investments in Limburg education.”
Dewael concludes: “If you know that the strengthening of Limburg higher education is estimated at 30 to 40 million euros per year, it does not make sense that all those Antwerp projects often pass without much noise. Put your money where your mouth is.“
Tags: Limburg Open VLD candidates teachers teach Catholic state education time
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