Strikes over steep cuts to French-speaking education have led some secondary schools in Brussels to cancel their end-of-year exams. They include the Collège Saint-Michel in Etterbeek, where management was anticipating a large number of teachers taking part in the protest against cuts to French-language education, which complicates the practical organisation of the exams. Students there who have not failed any subject will be exempted, while exams for official government certificates – such as the CESS – will go ahead in full as usual, as some
pupils will need them if they wish to continue their studies abroad. The Athenée Royal in Evere is following the same approach: there, too, only pupils with one or more failing grades are required to sit the exams. Other schools are still deciding on an approach. Students at the Institut des Dames de Marie in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert are calling on management, via a petition which has now gathered 575 signatures, to follow the example of Saint-Michel. “It’s not out of laziness or because we don’t want
to work. We’re calling for this mobilisation so that we can fight against these reforms,” the students write. A similar petition calls for the cancellation of exams at the Lycée Mater Dei in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, while teaching staff at the Athénée Royal Jean Absil in Etterbeek voted to retain the exams at the end of the school year but with more leeway for pupils. “It goes without saying that the exams will be adapted to the material actually covered and that the class council will take
the circumstances into account in its final assessments,” the school said in a statement to parents. The CSC Enseignement trade union adopted an official position on the final exams last week , stating that exams for state certificates are compulsory, but that all other exams “depend on the school”. The union did, however, state that it regrets that this could create discrepancies between schools.
Brussels, French-speaking education, teacher strikes, exam cancellations, Collège Saint-Michel, Athenée Royal, CESS, CSC Enseignement, petitions