As the Belgian Government forges ahead with unpopular austerity measures aimed at tackling the country’s debt and sagging economy, opponents pointed to overcrowded schools as the glaring example of unkept promises, and called for action.
What resembled a scene of dedicated concert-goers camping out in the frigid air for tickets last week in Belgium’s Flemish Region, was in fact the strange reality of parents waiting to enrol their children into a public school.
“It’s humiliating to be herded like cattle in the cold,” said Petra Gwyn-Jones, a parent who traded shifts with her husband throughout the night to get their daughter one of the highly sought places. Left to wait without toilet facilities, Gwyn-Jones, who also works as a coordinator at Education International (EI), said that one positive from the experience was that “the school was kind to provide coffee and pastries.”
She is one of roughly 160 parents who camped out overnight in order to get first dibs at enrolling their children at Zavo Secondary School in Zaventem, a suburb that lies just outside of Brussels, Belgium’s capital. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated case.
The long line of parents was a glaring example of Belgium’s lacklustre investment in the public school system. According to reports, the Flemish Region alone is on pace to be short of 2,800 places in primary schools this coming September.
Belgium’s education unions have echoed the parents’ discontent, condemning the federal governments’ current actions for their negative impact on teachers and quality public education, and have offered possible solutions.
COV: Flanders must ensure quality teachers and education
“There is still no social peace,” said Marianne Coopman of unions’ relationship with the government, the General Secretary of the Christelijk Onderwijzersverbond(COV), an EI affiliate.
The Belgian Government’s decision to forego this year’s salary index rise, which helps regulate the increased cost of living, is opposed by many, but stands to save millions of euros of public money. Money, Coopman says, should be fed back into education.
“Flanders foresees that the index jump will bring 200 million euros, she said. “If the federal government implements an index jump, the agreed goal must be achieved: creating additional jobs.” For the COV, the money brought by the index jump must be fully returned to the groups of personnel from whom it comes, and there can be no discussion about it, she added.
“These governmental actions are heavily weighing on opportunities for beginning staff, wages, career breaks,” as well as pensions, said Coopman. “Just when we desperately need good teachers, the teaching profession is made unattractive.”
In order to maintain professionalism and support their commitment, teachers’ working conditions should also be of high quality, which requires especially an investment in professional development, educational leadership, good infrastructures, Coopman said.
Among concrete measures to be taken, Coopman mentioned: full-time jobs of long duration for teaching staff starting their career; and part-time career systems for teachers of all career-range, necessary to combine work and family for as long as possible.
CSC-Enseignement: Teachers directly impacted by social measures
The social situation in the country is becoming “more and more explosive”, warned Eugène Ernst, General Secretary of the Confédération des syndicats chrétiens de l’enseignement(CSC-Enseignement), affiliated to EI.
To improve the economic situation, CSC-Enseignement proposes an economic stimulus plan through governmental investment in infrastructure and public services, through the preservation of purchasing power; tax justice via the contribution from all income (real estate, investments, financial) to reduce the tax on labour; a wealth tax; and an investment in public services, including education.
Taking a stand of quality education
The Christelijke Onderwijscentrale(COC), another EI member organisation, joined more than 9,000 other unionists in Brussels’ city centre yesterday to express their opposition to a wide range of the government’s economic plans, including proposed cuts to public services and negotiations for workers in the public sector and education.