New rules on enrolment should bring to an end to camping at the school gates
The Flemish Government has reached an agreement about new rules for the enrolment of pupils at schools. In future all Flemish secondary school and all Flemish primary school that have capacity issues must use a digital enrolment system.
Furthermore, the enrolment of all pupils in these schools will take place on the same day. This should bring to an end a situation whereby parents camp, sometimes for days, outside the school gates in order to get their child a place at a popular school.
From now on schools in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent (East Flanders) will all have to use a central pupil enrolment platform. In order to prevent parents enrolling their child at more than one school all the pupil enrolments at these schools will take place on the same day.
Registrations for places in primary schools will get underway on 1 March 2019 with enrolments starting from 6 May. In secondary schools registrations will get under way from 1 April 2019 will enrolments starting on 29 May.
Quotas for pupils from deprived backgrounds scrapped
The rule by which a number of places are reserved for children from deprived backgrounds in secondary schools has also been scrapped. This rule was applicable to all schools that had join together in a local schools’ platform.
This places will now be allotted by a kind of lottery draw system. The theory is that by allowing chance to decide who gets a place where a good mix is created between disadvantaged and more advantaged children. The current system will remain in place in primary schools.
