On the first day of the suspension of classes in order to curb the spread of Covid-19 in Belgium, parents massively gave up sending their children to the daycares organized by the schools on Monday.
According to figures collected from different educational networks, the rate of attendance in the basic (nursery and primary) was just under 10% on average.
In the secondary, this figure was even lower, which prompted the Minister of Education Caroline Désir (PS) to quickly qualify this weak presence as “success“. In the municipal and provincial schools of Wallonia and Brussels, the attendance rate was almost everywhere lower than 10%, according to a survey conducted by the Education Council of the communes and the provinces (CECP) near a thousand affiliated schools.
“Of the 1,050 schools surveyed today, we had 712 responses. And in 698 schools, the student attendance rate was less than 10%. In nine schools, it varied between 11 and 20%“, according to Dominique Luperto, interim secretary general of CECP, interviewed by Belga.
It does not bode well for what will happen in the next few days.
In the catholic network, which educates about half of young Francophones, attendance figures were even lower. Thus, in basic Catholic schools, only 2.16% of children were present on Monday, and barely 0.1% in secondary school, according to figures collected by the General Secretariat for Catholic Education (SeGEC). “We can say that it is a minimal presence, well below what was expected, but it does not predict what will happen in the coming days“, reacted Etienne Michel, director general of SeGEC.”Many parents do not yet have an operational solution for the next three weeks, but it is in any case an indication of awareness among the population“.
Figures in Flanders
In Flandersthe call not to send the children to school was also well heeded on Monday. Only 19% of children were present in primary schools in Flanders, and less than five percent in secondary education, according to figures delivered by the Flemish Minister of Education, Ben Weyts (N-VA).
Courses suspended until April 3
To curb the spread of Covid-19, authorities decided last Thursday to suspend lessons for three weeks in all schools in the country, an extremely rare measure. Logically, all pupils are therefore presumed to be absent in a justified manner. However, each establishment is required to welcome its students whose parents work in the fields of health care, public security, childcare, the elderly or education, as well as those whose parents can not help but entrust them to their grandparents, at-risk category of the Covid-19, according to a ministerial circular sent last weekend.
This long, scheduled interruption of courses, however, concerns several players in education who are worried about the continuity of students’ teachings, and also about the relevance of organizing the traditional external certification tests next June, including the CEB (certificate of basic studies). To discuss all these questions, the representatives of the educational organizing powers and the teachers’ unions must meet this Tuesday the Minister of Education Caroline Désir. In particular, it will discuss ways of monitoring students remotely using digital tools.
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