Belgian Town Weighs School Merger as Births Decline

Local authorities in Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve are studying a plan to merge one of the municipality’s struggling communal schools into a school run by Wallonie-Bruxelles Enseignement (WBE), as falling birth rates erode pupil numbers across Belgium’s French-speaking community. The proposal, reported by RTBF, would transfer the école communale du centre to a different organizing authority while preserving its educational project, its families and its staff. Without a merger, the school risks outright closure.

A Shrinking Pupil Population

The seven communal schools of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve now enroll 1,341 children, 46 fewer than last year — a drop the mayor describes as equivalent to two full classes. The municipality is losing two full-time-equivalent teaching positions this year, after already losing the same number the previous year.

“It’s enormous, it’s almost the equivalent of two classes,” said Bourgmestre Nicolas Van der Maren. “We’re losing two full-time-equivalent teaching staff this year, and that was already the case last year.”

The situation is most acute at the central school, which now counts just 131 pupils — below the 140-student threshold that Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB) rules require a school to reach, as counted on 30 September, in order to stay open. Over the past decade, the school has exceeded that threshold in only a single year, according to L’Avenir.

“For ten years the communal college has been trying to find administrative solutions to keep the school going, but we must admit it isn’t working,” Van der Maren said. “We have the responsibility and the duty to find a sustainable solution, which is the whole point of the approach undertaken with Wallonie-Bruxelles Enseignement.”

The Merger Scenario

The plan under study would merge the central communal school with the école fondamentale de l’athénée royal Paul Delvaux, which depends on the FWB through WBE. The two schools already share a similar pedagogical project and are partners in offering a Dutch-language immersion stream. Under the scenario, the central school’s classes would, a priori, remain in their existing premises behind the town hall.

André Grenier, director-general of WBE, stressed that pupils would see little change. “Pedagogically, nothing changes for the students,” he said. “We will offer staff either to join Wallonie-Bruxelles Enseignement and teach at the central school under that banner, or to continue in communal education by joining another school organized by the City of Ottignies.”

No decision has yet been taken. A feasibility study has been launched covering all aspects, including the question of school buildings. If the analysis is conclusive, the project could be implemented as early as the next school year.

A Decade of Uncertainty

The central school’s precarious position is not new. In April, L’Avenir reported that the school had to reach 140 pupils by 30 September 2026 or close on 1 October. To that end, the Ville opened a third-year primary class in Dutch immersion as a lifeline, with an additional year-level to be added each year up to the sixth primary.

At a communal council meeting in May, the future of the school — and particularly the fate of its dedicated directorship — was debated, according to L’Avenir. In June, a collective of around 60 parents, represented by Simon Deleruelle, formally questioned the communal college about the school’s future, La DH reported.

A National Crisis in Miniature

The dilemma in Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve reflects a wider demographic squeeze on the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, whose endowments from the federal state are calculated on the number of pupils it must educate. On 5 October, Education Minister Valérie Glatigny (MR) told a parliamentary committee that 17 school sites — out of 2,953 across the FWB — were closed during the 2025-2026 school year for lack of sufficient pupils, as Belga reported, after being questioned by MP Dorothée De Rodder (PS).

Between 2019 and 2024, the FWB had already lost roughly 20,000 pupils — a reduction of about 2%. Demographic and fertility projections foresee falling numbers in nursery education until 2030 and in primary education until 2035. The community has set up an internal working group to analyze the impacts.

Glatigny cautioned that the consequences for staffing would be real but context-dependent. “The decline in the number of students will necessarily have effects on student support, but these effects cannot be mechanically deduced from a global demographic projection,” she said, noting that adaptations will vary by geography, school size, staff movements and local teacher shortages.

What to Watch

Several questions remain open. Will the feasibility study conclude positively, and could the merger take effect for the 2026-2027 school year? Will the central school’s 131 pupils be formally counted as part of the athénée royal Paul Delvaux, thereby satisfying the 140-student norm? And what will become of the school’s dedicated directorship, a concern raised at the May council meeting?

For Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, the merger is presented as a way to keep an educational offering alive in the municipality without disrupting families or cutting jobs. For the wider Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, it is a small but telling example of how demographic decline is quietly reshaping the school landscape — a trend that, on current projections, shows little sign of reversing before the 2030s.