Belgium’s Education Under Strain: Three Crises Examined
Three education stories published on the same day paint a stark picture of a Belgian school system grappling with capacity shortages, austerity-driven reforms, and evolving child protection standards. From a 12-year-old physics prodigy unable to find a school placement to a 10-day teacher strike and new background check requirements for extracurricular leaders, the challenges facing education in Belgium are both diverse and deeply interconnected.
Gifted Student Falls Through the Cracks
Seppe De Roeck (12) from Schelle, Antwerp province, has a passion for atomic physics, science, and Lego. He creates board games almost daily and dreams of becoming a scientist or inventor. But as September approaches, his family faces a devastating reality: no school in the region can offer him a place.
According to HLN, Seppe has diagnoses of autism and ADHD. He is cognitively very strong but socially and emotionally younger, requiring specialized type 9 special needs education (buitengewoon onderwijs) focused on daily living and social skills. His family contacted five schools in Antwerp, Mechelen, and Buggenhout — all responded that no places were available. The closest waiting list position is number six; another school has them at number 22. Classes in these programs typically have only eight students.
“We’re on waiting lists everywhere. Our child just falls through the cracks,” said Seppe’s mother, Sofie Corrigan (38). Her husband, Yvan De Roeck (56), added: “In Belgium they say every child has the right to education. But apparently not our child.”
The case echoes a broader crisis. A September 2023 VRT NWS report found more than 460 children on waiting lists for special needs education in Antwerp alone. A recent case of Wies (13) from Affligem received ministerial intervention after media attention — raising concerns about what Seppe’s mother calls a system where places are handed out “to whoever shouts the loudest.”
Teachers Strike as Austerity Reforms Loom
While the De Roeck family fights for a school placement, thousands of teachers across the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB) are on strike from May 18 to 27. The industrial action, called by the CSC-Enseignement union and supported by SETCa, targets the “décret-programme 2” — austerity measures announced in October 2025 to reduce the FWB’s budget deficit.
Minister-President Elisabeth Degryse (Les Engagés), who also serves as budget minister, assured the public in an interview with RTBF that there will be no net job losses at the macro level. However, she acknowledged that reassignments will be inevitable at the micro level, with teachers potentially losing hours at one school and having to find them at another.
“I completely understand that there may be emotion, anger, perhaps a feeling of injustice,” Degryse said. She pointed to 2,000 teaching posts opening annually in upper secondary education, which she argues should absorb surplus teachers, and noted that a “freeze on reassignments” has been implemented to smooth transitions over two years.
The FWB faces a current deficit of €1.6 billion, with a target of reducing it to €1.2 billion by 2029. Interest payments are projected to rise from €350 million per year to €600 million per year by 2029. The FWB is the only entity in Belgium without fiscal powers, meaning it cannot generate its own revenue — a structural constraint Degryse acknowledged as “a real problem.”
Teachers, however, remain deeply skeptical. The FWB parliament is scheduled to vote on the decree implementing the austerity measures on May 27, and union leaders have signaled that the strike could escalate if their demands are not met.
New Background Checks for Extracurricular Leaders
Amid these systemic pressures, a separate development reflects progress in child protection. Since May 1, 2024, any adult working with minors in extracurricular activities in the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles — even as a volunteer — must provide a specific criminal record extract before starting.
As reported by La Libre Belgique, the regulation requires leaders of “extrascolaire” or “parascolaire” activities to “montrer patte blanche” (show a white paw) — a French expression meaning to prove one’s trustworthiness. The article draws a comparison with the “scandale du périscolaire” in Paris, which has shaken France and prompted a review of child safety practices across the region.
While the measure represents a positive step for child safety, it may create administrative burdens for volunteer-run organizations that already operate on tight resources.
A System Under Pressure
Taken together, these three stories reveal an education system confronting multiple challenges simultaneously. The gifted education crisis highlights chronic underfunding and undercapacity in specialized programs. The teacher strikes reflect the tension between fiscal discipline and education quality. And the background check requirement shows a system trying to modernize its child protection framework.
Key questions remain. Will Seppe find a school placement by September, or will his family be forced to rely on the Athena Open Leercentrum in Mechelen — a volunteer-run center offering four half-days per week at a cost to parents? Will the May 27 parliamentary vote pass the décret-programme, and how will unions respond? And as the FWB grapples with its structural budget constraints, can the system find a path that addresses both fiscal responsibility and the quality of education that children like Seppe deserve?
What is clear is that Belgium’s education system is at a crossroads — and the decisions made in the coming weeks will shape the classroom experience for students, teachers, and families across the country for years to come.