1,300 Directors Challenge Demir: ‘Give Schools More Say’

More than 1,300 school directors from across Flanders and Brussels have sent a sharply worded open letter to Flemish Education Minister Zuhal Demir, demanding greater autonomy and more time to implement a wave of educational reforms they say threaten to undermine the quality of teaching. The directors — representing roughly one-third of all school principals in Flemish primary and secondary education — held a press conference on Friday morning and were scheduled to meet with Demir’s cabinet later in the day, as reported by VRT NWS.

A Crisis of Confidence

The open letter marks a significant escalation in a growing crisis that now spans both of Belgium’s linguistic communities. The directors — from all educational networks, levels, provinces, and Brussels — accuse Demir of ignoring frontline educators and imposing reforms at a pace and scale that schools cannot absorb.

“Good education requires a foundation of thoughtfulness and stability,” the letter states. “The current multitude of measures, the speed at which they are implemented, and their poor practical organization on the work floor threaten to harm the quality of education rather than strengthen it.”

Speaking on Radio 1’s De Ochtend, coordinating director Guy Voets of viio Tongeren-Borgloon described the initiative as spontaneous and born of desperation. “It was a fairly spontaneous initiative. Various colleague directors said: what is happening here is a lot in a short time, it’s going much too fast. We can’t continue like this.”

What Directors Are Demanding

The directors’ core demands center on three issues: autonomy, time, and genuine consultation. They are asking for:

• Postponement of the reduction of evaluation days until the 2027-2028 school year
• More flexibility in school organization, including allowing students to arrive later or leave earlier as needed
• A clear timeline for the rollout of new minimum educational goals
• An end to “coloured” (earmarked) funding, which they describe as patronizing micromanagement

“We see micromanagement. With certain resources we receive, we are only allowed to do specific things. We call that ‘coloured’ funding and we find it patronizing,” Voets explained. “Every school, every context is different.”

The Broader Picture: A Tale of Two Crises

The discontent in Flanders mirrors an even more acute crisis in Belgium’s French Community, where teachers have been staging a 10-day strike against reforms by Minister Valérie Glatigny (MR). Students and parents have also joined the movement, as reported by RTBF.

Education expert Marc Romainville, a doctor in education sciences at UNamur who participated in the landmark Pact for Excellence from 2015, described the current approach as a “rather radical change of method.” He told RTBF that decisions are now made first, with consultation reduced to a formality: “Everyone tells me that decisions are made first. And then, there is possibly a consultation to find out how you are going to do that. That is not consultation.”

Fanny Demeulder, a teacher and founder of School Up, described the reforms as “brutal,” noting that teachers are being asked to absorb more hours without adequate support.

From Consensus to Confrontation

The current crisis represents a fundamental shift in education governance. The Pact for Excellence, adopted in 2017 after years of broad consultation with teachers, universities, pedagogical advisors, and unions, was built on consensus. The current reforms, by contrast, are widely seen as top-down impositions.

Professor Dirk Jacobs of ULB, in an analysis published by VRT NWS, described the situation as a “cocktail that leads to anger” — combining the teacher shortage, pension reform, and top-down decision-making. “Actually, the pendulum has swung too far towards dirigisme [top-down control],” Jacobs said.

What’s at Stake

The timing of the open letter is critical. With the school year ending in late June or early July, directors are under immense pressure to organize for September. The letter warns that many measures are unrealistic to implement by 1 September.

If Demir does not respond substantively, the protest movement could grow significantly in the new school year. The parallel crisis in the French Community — where Glatigny’s decree-program faces parliamentary scrutiny — suggests that education governance in Belgium is facing a structural reckoning that transcends party politics.

What’s Next

A delegation of five directors was scheduled to meet with Demir’s cabinet on Friday afternoon. The outcome of that meeting will be closely watched as an indicator of whether the minister is willing to compromise on timelines and restore the collaborative approach that the education sector is demanding.

With discontent simmering in both Flanders and the French Community, education is poised to become a defining political issue in Belgium — raising fundamental questions about how the country governs its schools, respects its educators, and balances fiscal discipline with the quality of its children’s education.