{"id":637484,"date":"2025-12-17T05:37:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T05:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/637484\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T05:37:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T05:37:22","slug":"flagship-eu-school-system-buckles-while-belgium-hesitates-on-new-campus-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/637484\/","title":{"rendered":"Flagship EU school system buckles while Belgium hesitates on new campus \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Structural problems persist<\/p>\n

From the outside, the European Schools seem like a privileged enclave. But the system is stretched to its limits.<\/p>\n

The schools\u2019 complex governance structure<\/a>, split between the EU and national bodies, means \u201ceveryone decides, and no one decides \u2026 everyone will always find someone else to blame,\u201d said the mother of a student in primary and one in secondary. They also complained that decisions are made behind closed doors and without proper consultations with parents.<\/p>\n

Beckmann rejected the accusations of not sticking to promises, explaining that the relocation clause had always been subject to review in 2024 and that decisions were made collectively. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) study<\/a> conducted in five European Schools between September and November 2018 found that children with disabilities were often not provided with adequate accommodation to allow them to learn in an inclusive environment. The report did not specify which schools were reviewed.<\/p>\n

Teachers have also raised concerns over employment conditions at the European Schools. Between February and March this year, staff in Brussels staged several strikes <\/a>to demand equal rights for locally recruited teachers, who face precarious contracts, lack job stability and have no union representation.<\/p>\n

To address job-security concerns, Beckmann said that the Board of Governors decided to provide staff that have worked in the system for more than eight years with permanent contracts. Regarding the salary concerns, he said the system is also looking into it, but argued that the European Schools in Belgium already offer \u201cmore than competitive\u201d salaries compared with national schools.<\/p>\n

But for many Brussels parents, it may not be enough. \u201cThe whole history of overcrowding in the European Schools is about inadequate planning,\u201d said Gesquiere. \u201cAnd the children are the ones caught in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Structural problems persist From the outside, the European Schools seem like a privileged enclave. But the system is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[1789,11576,2266,2000,299,5187],"class_list":{"0":"post-637484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-brussels-bubble","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115733295530715484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}