EU takes over military academy

A controversial fourth European school opens its doors to students in Laeken

The canteen of the new EU school in Laeken enjoys a stellar view over Brussels: the Royal Church of Laeken in the foreground, the towers of the financial district behind it and the Palais de Justice on the horizon. It’s a view that seems designed to challenge the young European students who will start here this month over their relationship with the city.

The so-called Brussels IV European School opened on September 4, providing much-needed extra capacity for the city’s European schools whose student numbers have grown significantly since the EU’s 2004 enlargement. It hasn’t been without controversy, however, as the press questioned the fairness of Belgium pouring money into revamping a former military school by the Laeken Royal Parks when so many Belgian schools need investment.

“It is certainly a wonderful site,” says Wulf Schlabe, the school’s headmaster, in the oak-panelled staff room. “It is understandable that there is some resentment, but I stress: we are just occupying the school, it’s not ours. In the meantime we maintain these buildings.”

The upper part of the school incorporates the Flemish neo-Renaissance buildings that formerly housed the Grenadier Barracks – their role was to watch over the security of the palace – and a Cadet Training Academy founded in 1840. In total, €88 million of Belgian money was spent on renovating these buildings, which are destined for primary and secondary school students, and on building modern facilities in the lower part of the site, to be used by the nursery school. Between the two, a modern block houses the canteen and the theatre and affords panoramic views over the school and Brussels.

This is the fourth EU school in Brussels. The first was founded in 1958, and a more-or-less contemporary convention between the EU and the Belgian state requires the latter to make buildings available for use by the European schools. In 2011, the existing EU schools in Brussels catered for approximately 10,000 students in 15 language sections. Around 3,000 students were enrolled in the French language sections, compared to 87 in the Lithuanian.

Designed for 2,800 students between the ages of four and 18, the school welcomed 1,350 pupils when term started on September 4. “The board decided that the school should grow incrementally, to reach full capacity by 2016,” says Schlabe, a maths and physics teacher from Germany who previously taught at the European school in Uccle. While the school has six language sections, meaning the curriculum is taught in six languages, by the time the students leave they will have studied in three different languages, just like in all EU schools. “The students first study history and geography in their second language,” explains Schlabe. “Depending on teacher availability, if the pupils want to pursue a certain subject until the end of their studies, they may have to do so in a language other than their own.”

The end result is students who “are able to go on to study everywhere”. But Schlabe is keen to stress that the EU schools are not mere language institutes. “The European Baccalauréat diploma is recognised across Europe,” he says. “These are normal academic schools, but you need several languages to navigate through the system.”

If academically the school leaves little to be desired, parents should not expect masses of extra-curricular activities. It already relies on a network of 30 buses to transport students around Brussels during normal school hours, so additional sports, cooking or drama classes after school would prove logistically challenging. “Parents can organise activities on the school grounds,” says Schlabe, “but it’s true that a school football team would do a lot for the school’s identity.”

Figures published in 2008 show that an unusually high number of European school students went on to study a science subject. “It’s true that many do seem to go into engineering,” agrees Schlabe, “but you really find all sorts of careers.” Curiously, the figures reveal that at the time, only 8 percent of the alumni surveyed worked in the EU institutions, despite the European education and valuable language skills leavers have. Given that each European school’s foundation stone bears an inscription from Jean Monnet exhorting the students “to complete and consolidate the work of their fathers before them, to bring into being a united and thriving Europe”, is this surprising? “No, we try to allow each child to preserve their national roots within an EU context so they can work anywhere,” says Schlabe. “These certainly aren’t schools to train an EU elite.” So perhaps it’s fitting that of all the Brussels monuments visible from the canteen’s panorama, only the EU institutions lie out of sight.

The European School in Laeken will be open to visitors on September 15

http://laeken.eeb4.be/