The strike movements in education reflect real discontent, which must be heard, but behind the current debates lies a fundamental question: what kind of school do we want for tomorrow? A school at a standstill, unable to invest again? Or a school that regains the means to fulfil its ambitions?
The course set by Valérie Glatigny is clear: take the necessary decisions today to strengthen our education system sustainably tomorrow. Because governing also means facing reality and no longer sweeping the dust under the carpet.
Today, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation faces a particularly worrying budget situation. With spending of €15 billion against revenue of €13.5 billion, we must act without pushing the problem onto future generations. Concretely, this means that one in five teacher salaries is currently financed through borrowing. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of euros go to banks in interest repayments on our debt, rather than to our schools.
In this context, the Government has taken responsibility to regain control of our deficit. We are not making savings for the sake of it. Our goal is a school that better supports its teachers, provides more support to struggling pupils, embraces the demand for success, and regains a genuine capacity to reinvest.
To do this, we examined a series of savings proposals put forward by a committee of independent economists and made choices that preserve our political priorities (quality of pupils' learning, attractiveness of the profession). We rejected certain proposals: there was no question of touching teachers' salaries, abolishing early retirement schemes (DPPR), increasing class sizes or reducing the number of teaching hours. The decisions taken aim precisely to preserve support for pupils and to combat the teacher shortage.
We support making the teaching profession more attractive, with more stable and better-supported career starts. We also want stronger support for pupils, clearer learning requirements, and a firm commitment to raising standards in numeracy, reading and writing.
From 2027, several concrete investments are also planned:- a 5% pay rise for young teachers who now train over 4 years;
- a revaluation of school leadership positions (a 25% pay differential compared to a teacher);
- a reduction of two teaching periods for teachers in their first year of teaching;
- the same reduction for teachers aged 60 and over;
- strengthened personalised support for pupils in primary and secondary education (€25 million).