Wallonia to introduce compulsory Dutch from third year of primary school

Belgium's French-speaking community plans to make Dutch lessons compulsory from the third year of primary school, Wallonia-Brussels Federation education minister Valérie Glatigny (MR) has announced.

In French-speaking schools in Brussels, pupils already learn Dutch from the third year onwards. Glatigny now wants to extend this arrangement to Wallonia.

In doing so, Glatigny wants to promote the social and professional integration of future employees, given the many job opportunities in Flanders. She also cited democracy as a reason and “because we live in Belgium”.

In secondary education, pupils would have to ask the school management for an exception if they want to learn a language other than Dutch as a second language. From the second year onwards, a third language, English or German, will be added.

In order to implement this plan, there must be enough Dutch teachers, which is currently a bottleneck profession and has been for some time.

Glatigny hopes to attract teachers from other sectors. The reform would take effect at the start of the 2027 school year.

The teaching of Dutch in Walloon schools has been declining for several years. English has now become the most popular choice, with 70% of pupils choosing it as their first foreign language.