Belgium CEB Exam Question on Congo Sparks Colonial Row

A question on Belgium’s primary school leaving exam has ignited a fierce debate about how the country’s colonial history is taught in classrooms. Education Minister Valérie Glatigny has responded to the backlash, expressing understanding of the outrage while calling for tighter oversight of future exam content.

The controversy centers on Question 10 of the History-Geography section of the 2026 Certificat d’Études de Base (CEB), an external standardized exam taken by approximately 51,300 students at the end of sixth grade in Belgium’s French-speaking Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.

The Problematic Question

Students were presented with a document describing King Léopold II as “an enterprising king and a fine strategist” and characterizing colonized peoples as “inferior, less organized, and judged incapable of defending themselves.” The excerpt, taken from a 2015 exhibition panel titled “Du coup de grisou au caoutchouc” presented in the Muséobus, was used to test students’ ability to determine whether a source was relevant for research on the colonization of the Americas.

Critics argue that the document presents a sanitized, pro-colonial narrative that validates colonialist discourse while omitting the atrocities committed under Léopold II’s regime in the Congo Free State, where an estimated 5 to 10 million people died. According to La Libre Belgique, which broke the story on June 30, several teachers expressed shock at both the document’s content and the nature of the question asked.

Minister’s Response

Speaking on La Première radio on July 3, Minister Valérie Glatigny said: “I share the incomprehension and I have communicated this to my administration. This type of questioning about the Belgian colonies must be done with supervision.” As reported by La Libre Belgique, Glatigny emphasized that the exam questions were prepared by a panel of teachers and pedagogical advisors operating independently of her cabinet, but acknowledged that “this type of question can offend sensibilities.”

The Minister suggested that sensitive historical themes should be addressed through supervised classroom debates rather than in a high-stakes certificative exam, calling for closer administrative oversight in the future.

Administration’s Defense

The General Administration of Education defended the question, stating that the terms used “are in no way the viewpoint of the CEB writers, but that of the colonizers of the time” and that the excerpt was “sufficient for validating the assessed competency.” The administration noted that a critical approach to colonization is taught in secondary school, and that the primary-level question was designed to test document analysis skills rather than historical knowledge of colonization itself.

Expert and Public Reaction

Julien Truddaïu, author of “Notre Congo/Onze Kongo – La propagande coloniale dévoilée,” was among the most vocal critics. Speaking to Moustique, he described the document’s language as “the vocabulary of management applied to the architect of one of the most murderous colonial enterprises of the 20th century.”

Bernard Hubien, Secretary General of the UFAPEC (Union of Francophone Parents’ Associations), expressed surprise that such a document was used without contextualization. Researchers and the Collectif Mémoire Coloniale et Lutte contre les Discriminations launched a petition demanding the definitive withdrawal of the problematic document from official records.

Broader Context

The controversy comes amid a wider reckoning in Belgium with its colonial past. In recent years, statues of Léopold II have been vandalized and removed, and a parliamentary commission was established in 2020 to examine Belgium’s colonial legacy. The King of Belgium expressed “regrets” for colonial violence during a 2022 visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The incident also coincides with the lowest CEB pass rate in a decade — 84.63% — adding to existing tensions around the examination system.

What’s Next

The petition calling for the document’s withdrawal continues to gather signatures, and pressure is mounting on the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles administration to formally respond. Minister Glatigny has signaled that new oversight procedures for future CEB exams may be forthcoming. The controversy raises fundamental questions about how Belgium’s education system navigates the sensitive terrain of colonial history — and whether 10- and 11-year-old students are equipped to critically engage with source material that carries the weight of a contested national legacy.