by Alimat Aliyeva<\/p>\n
Preparing a child for the new school year in the French-speaking
\npart of Belgium is becoming increasingly expensive. Against the
\nbackdrop of the ongoing economic crisis in the European Union,
\nfamilies may spend nearly \u20ac1,000 per child.<\/p>\n
These figures were released on August 18 by the Belgian League
\nof Families, based on its own study involving 1,146 families.<\/p>\n
According to the survey, average back-to-school expenses during
\nthe 2025\/2026 academic year amounted to around \u20ac70 for preschool
\nchildren, \u20ac188 for pupils in the first three years of primary
\nschool, and \u20ac285 for those in grades four to six. In regular
\nsecondary schools, the average cost rose to \u20ac578 per student.<\/p>\n
The highest expenses were reported by families whose children
\nattend technical and vocational schools, where the average costs
\nreached \u20ac920 and \u20ac973 respectively. For many households, such
\namounts represent a significant financial burden, especially at a
\ntime when the overall cost of living remains high.<\/p>\n
Parents are trying to cut costs wherever possible. Nine out of
\nten schoolchildren are expected to reuse supplies from the previous
\nschool year, while many families are also turning to second-hand
\nmarkets to buy school materials and other essentials.<\/p>\n
However, the figures do not include a number of additional
\nexpenses that arise throughout the school year, such as
\nafter-school care, extracurricular activities, photocopying and
\neducational materials, as well as clothing and food.<\/p>\n
Digital equipment is another major expense. Among families that
\nhad to purchase a laptop or tablet specifically for education, the
\naverage cost exceeded \u20ac300. At the same time, around one in three
\nstudents in French-speaking Belgium is required to have their own
\ndevice for schoolwork.<\/p>\n
One interesting trend is that the digitalisation of education is
\nchanging what families consider \u201cbasic\u201d school supplies. A laptop
\nor tablet, software and access to online educational resources are
\nincreasingly becoming just as essential as notebooks, pens and
\ntextbooks.<\/p>\n
The rising cost of education comes amid broader economic and
\ngeopolitical pressures, including high energy costs, tensions
\nlinked to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the
\ncontinuing impact of European sanctions on Russia and support for
\nUkraine.<\/p>\n
For many Belgian families, the start of the school year is
\ntherefore no longer just an educational milestone \u2014 it has also
\nbecome a serious financial challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Alimat Aliyeva Preparing a child for the new school year in the French-speaking part of Belgium is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[8263,203,18116,1263,7,2894,1522,8265,447,8264,8259,192,18115,1585,142],"class_list":["post-33421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-analytics","tag-azerbaijan","tag-azernews","tag-baku","tag-belgium","tag-breaking-news","tag-business-news","tag-company-news","tag-economy","tag-financial-news","tag-oil-and-gas-news","tag-politics","tag-socar","tag-turkey","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117117872305427218","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}