Belgian school teachers know their maths

Flanders ranks third in the world for the quality of its maths teaching in primary and secondary schools, according to a new study released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The region is close on the heels behind leaders Japan and Finland and ahead of neighbours the Netherlands (6), France (11) and England (16).

The news came as a big surprise to the education sector, as recent studies published by Ghent and Leuven universities had labelled Flemish teacher training “inadequate” and “worrisome”.

Dirk Van Damme, head of the OECD’s Innovation and Measuring Division and a professor of educational sciences at Ghent University, is quick to point out that the study was limited to the level of teaching of mathematics. “Where teachers fail is in the general level of pedagogy,” he said. “That wasn’t measured in the OECD study.”

Van Damme also notes that the job of primary and secondary teaching “lacks the prestige in Flanders” that it deserves, and therefore isn’t considered by some of the region’s most promising students. “If prestige decreases, the number of candidates decreases as well,” he said. “To compensate for that, the level of the training is lowered, which creates a downward spiral.”