The demand for a place in Dutch-speaking elementary schools in Brussels is still far exceeding the current availability, resulting in thousands of children being left without a place for the next academic year.
During the application period for the 2024-2025 academic year, which ran from late February to mid-March, around 6,000 applications were submitted for Dutch-speaking primary education in Brussels.
A total of 3,186 children were given a spot, and 70% of pupils can attend their first choice of school. But for almost half the number of applications – 2,815 children – there will be no place to start Dutch-language education in September, figures from the Brussel Primary Education's Local Consultation Platform (LOP) showed.
According to Brussels minister Sven Gatz (Open VLD), who is responsible for education in the Flemish Community Commission (VGC), this is down to a fundamental problem in the capital's education system.
"The situation in Brussels differs to the one in Flanders, as households have the freedom to choose between French- and Dutch-speaking schools," he told The Brussels Times. "This makes it difficult to assess in advance what school families will choose and to estimate capacity, as this choice can be made every year."
Record-high increase in capacity
Ensuring sufficient Dutch-language education in Brussels is the task of the Flemish Government, which has increased the capacity in Brussels's primary schools by 6.4% this legislature, from 36,935 places in 2019-2020 to 39,324 places in 2024-2025. In the last 25 years, across all schools, 25,000 places have been added, doubling the number to around 53,000.
In the past six years, this has resulted in far fewer people being refused a place than at the start of the legislature. The cabinet of Flemish Education Minister Ben Weyts (N-VA) pointed to a decline of 18.3% (from 3,446 refused pupils in 2019-2020 to 2,815 refused pupils for 2024-2025).
However, according to LOP, this figure rose again from 2,627 in 2023, a phenomenon which worries the agency. The capacity problem is also affecting preschool education, where demand is even greater.
Both Gatz and Weyts argued that Dutch-speaking education in Brussels remains a victim of its success. "It is associated with quality and therefore recruits far more widely than just the Dutch speakers in Brussels," Weyts' cabinet told The Brussels Times. Around 5% of Brussels residents are native Dutch speakers, while 25% of the region's children attend Dutch-speaking schools here, highlighting that the system is popular among international residents.
New, empty classrooms
Gatz stressed that, in previous years, three-quarters of children who were first not accepted will still be enrolled in Dutch-speaking schools. "Some spaces will become free as children enrolled twice, while others will still decide last-minute to change schools."
Past years showed around half will still be enrolled in Brussels' Dutch-speaking schools, thought not necessarily in the school of first choice, while a quarter enrol in schools in a Flemish municipality on the outskirts of Brussels. "And the last quarter goes to a French-speaking school," Gatz noted. "We want to honour the social contract and ensure that, if parents want to enrol their children in Dutch-speaking schools, this remains possible, but the number of places is still too low."
Meanwhile, according to LOP, the chronic lack of teachers is forming a barrier to the capacity being further expanded as it makes little sense to invest in school infrastructure if there is no one in front of the classroom to teach. This problem is unlikely to end anytime soon: staff have been moving mountains to ensure every class has a teacher, but that approach is no longer proving sustainable, as the situation is further derailing. The lack of well-trained candidates with appropriate profiles further exacerbates the problem.
Gatz has argued there is reluctance in Flanders to further invest in Dutch-speaking education as it is so populated by non-Dutch-speaking children. "But for me, this was the intention, and the interest of the children should always come first in this." Weyts, meanwhile, stressed that Flanders will continue to invest in Brussels.
