The Government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation decided this Thursday to launch the fourth consecutive edition of the “Plaisir d’apprendre” initiative, set up in 2021 on the initiative of Minister-President Pierre-Yves Jeholet.
As a reminder, the “Plaisir d’apprendre” initiative, launched by Minister-President Pierre-Yves Jeholet, aims to enable all Walloon and Brussels municipalities to organise remedial school activities combined with sports and/or cultural activities for French-speaking pupils from the 6th year of primary school to the 5th year of secondary school.
Since 2021, the Government has organised this initiative to help children experiencing learning difficulties. In 2023, the “Plaisir d’apprendre” initiative thus welcomed 1,594 children across the 51 participating Walloon and Brussels municipalities.
Pierre-Yves Jeholet: “Launched urgently during the health crisis in partnership with municipalities and local stakeholders, with ‘Plaisir d’apprendre’ I wanted to offer a concrete response to school dropout, but also to help young people rebuild social ties. The very positive feedback from participating municipalities, as well as the stability of the figures across the different editions, undeniably demonstrates the relevance of this scheme.”
In practical terms, the call for participation launched by the Government is addressed to the Walloon and Brussels municipalities, which may join together and will be encouraged to involve local out-of-school care coordination bodies and, more broadly, local operators.
These activities will run over one week during the spring and/or summer holidays, at the convenience of the participating municipalities and taking local specificities into account. Several weeks of activities could thus be organised. However, the aim is not to compete with existing holiday camp offerings but to provide other alternatives. It is important that all stakeholders mobilise to support young people, who have been hard hit by the various crises.
“Combining remedial activities with other sporting and cultural activities is also highlighted as a positive aspect of the initiative, as it stimulates the child's interest while also strengthening collaboration between local stakeholders in the education, cultural and sports sectors. For all these reasons, I decided to propose to the Government that the initiative be repeated in 2024, for the fourth consecutive year,” explains Pierre-Yves Jeholet.
Remedial teaching will mainly focus on one or more of the following subjects: French, mathematics, sciences or languages, and must cover at least 50% of the activity time offered to children. These subjects were chosen with a view to focusing on fundamental knowledge that children seem to find most challenging.
The “Plaisir d’apprendre” initiative also aims to enable the recruitment of students from universities, Hautes Écoles and higher art schools to supervise pupils.
Registrations open on 1 March
A budget of €399,000 has been allocated to allow municipalities to receive a subsidy of €140 per child to carry out these projects.
A letter announcing the launch of the initiative will be sent to the 272 Walloon (excluding the German-speaking Community) and Brussels municipalities. It will include all the organisational details of the initiative. A link to the call for participation will also be sent by email to each municipality.
Interested municipalities must register via the SUBSIDE platform of the Ministry of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (https://www.transversal.cfwb.be/sub/login-tiers.sub) between 1 and 31 March 2024 at the latest.