Jinnih Beels (Vooruit) about 160 young people without school: “They are not at home, but are guided” (Antwerp)

The 160 young people who changed schools or were excluded in Antwerp are not just sitting at home. This is stated by Antwerp’s Alderman for Education, Jinnih Beels (Vooruit). “They are guided and cared for by the schools and CLBs,” she says.

More than 160 secondary school students in the city of Antwerp currently have no place at school. They had to change schools during the course of the school year or were permanently excluded through disciplinary expulsion, as it is called. This is evident from a survey by De Standaard last week.

READ ALSO. At least 160 young people are without school in Antwerp: “Extremely painful”

Antwerp’s Alderman for Education, Jinnih Beels (Vooruit) responded to the figures for the first time on Wednesday evening during her council committee in the Antwerp city hall.

That this is a record number, as Ann Huybrechts, coordinating director of secondary education for GO! stated in Antwerp, Beels cannot confirm. “We won’t know until the end of the school year,” she says.

Guidance programme

Last school year, 625 disciplinary expulsions took place in Antwerp. So far this school year it has exceeded four hundred. “And of those, 160 students are still in a guidance program,” says Beels. “These young people do not just sit at home, but are guided by the schools and the CLBs. They are cared for at the school or an institution where a day program is offered. It’s not like they’re just wandering around on the streets.”

Alderman Beels emphasizes that schools do not simply exclude students. “These are well-considered decisions by the school teams that are preceded by established disciplinary procedures,” says Beels. “The main causes are serious violations of school rules, repeated inappropriate behavior (such as physical aggression), prolonged unauthorized absences or conflict behavior that endangers the safety of other students.”

“As a city, we are committed to providing additional services to guide vulnerable young people,” Beels continues. “But these disciplinary expulsions exceed our powers. You cannot solve this by permanently freeing up budgets. Structural alternatives are needed for students who do not fit into the traditional school context.”