In response to the questions raised by the education reforms, Education Minister Valérie Glatigny recalls the guarantees put in place to preserve temporary teachers' jobs and improve working conditions in the profession. With one constant priority: ensuring pupils' success and calmly preparing for the 2026-2027 school year.
The debates surrounding the reforms aimed at securing funding for our education system are sparking numerous reactions. Education Minister Valérie Glatigny acknowledges the concerns expressed by some education stakeholders. But she also points out that she receives many messages of support every day, from citizens and teachers alike, who share the objectives pursued by the reforms undertaken.
What concerns us is the learning loss of pupils
As she stated in Parliament: “What frightens me, what frightens us, is certainly not the protest movements. We are not deaf, and we understand the anger, we understand the emotions. What frightens me, what frightens us, is when certain actors lead to the blocking of end-of-year educational activities. It is the loss of learning that worries us. I warmly thank the teachers who remain mobilised to continue lessons and validate their pupils' learning.”
Beyond the debates, the main issue remains pupils' success. Every day of learning counts and deserves to be protected.
Preserving jobs and securing career paths
One of the main concerns expressed in recent weeks relates to the two-period increase in the workload of upper secondary teachers, and the possible loss of hours for temporary teachers, should appointed teachers ‘take’ their hours to move from 20 to 22 classroom periods.
On this point, the figures provide reassurance. Next school year, 2,170 full-time equivalents will be freed up in upper secondary education as a result of natural departures. Across secondary education as a whole, nearly 4,000 full-time equivalents will be affected, while the workload measure is expected to save the equivalent of 1,300 full-time equivalents.
These figures show that there will be no outright job losses. Natural departures (retirements, early retirement schemes…) will absorb the effects of the reform while guaranteeing continuity of career paths. The reassignment mechanisms already in place in schools, organising authorities and committees will continue to play their full role in supporting situations of partial workload loss.
Additional measures to protect teachers
We understand the questions these changes may raise. The Minister has therefore sought to strengthen existing guarantees with specific support measures for the 2026-2027 school year.
A first measure, already included in programme-decree 2, provides for a freeze on reassignments. This provision will protect temporary teachers by preventing them from losing their workload as a result of requests for supplementary workload by appointed teachers. In practice, if a temporary teacher were to lose their workload because it is allocated to an appointed teacher at the end of the reassignment process (late October), their situation would be frozen for the entire 26-27 school year: both the temporary and the appointed teacher would keep their hours.
A second measure specifically targets priority temporary teachers. Its aim is clear: to guarantee that both appointed teachers and priority temporary teachers can keep a job at the start of next school year. This measure will be evaluated in December 2026.
Reforms that support the profession
The reforms undertaken are not limited to budgetary measures. They are accompanied by concrete actions aimed at boosting the attractiveness of the profession and tackling the teacher shortage, with reinvestments already taking effect from 2027.
For young teachers: a reduction of two classroom periods during their first year, along with the introduction of mentoring to ease their entry into the profession.
Also for teachers aged 60 and over, a reduction of 2 classroom periods, freeing up time for collective tasks benefiting schools and teaching teams.
The “CDI-E” project, currently under discussion with education stakeholders, also pursues an essential goal: offering beginning teachers greater stability through a full workload from the start of their career. A concrete response, given that today one in three young graduates still leaves the profession within the first five years.
Finally, a 5% salary increase is planned for new graduates to recognise the extension of their training. A 25% strengthening of the pay differential between teachers and school management is also planned, to better recognise the responsibilities they exercise.
Simplifying the day-to-day life of teaching teams
The reforms undertaken also aim to allow teachers to devote more time to their primary mission: passing on knowledge and supporting pupils.
To this end, several administrative simplification measures are planned. Steering plans will be lightened and the reporting requirement for collaborative work (60 hours per year) will be suspended for one year.
The reduction in the number of teachers on educational secondment aims to tackle the teacher shortage: strengthening the presence of teachers and management within schools and classrooms.
Preparing the future responsibly
The Wallonia-Brussels Federation is facing a very delicate budgetary situation that it would be irresponsible to ignore. Sustainably preserving our capacity to fund education, avoiding passing on an ever-heavier debt to future generations, and guaranteeing salary payments by 2029 are imperatives that cannot be avoided. Sweeping the dust under the carpet is not an option.
The reforms undertaken therefore pursue a dual objective: regaining control of our budget in order to reinvest the money currently used to repay our debt into our schools, thereby raising the quality of our education.