This Friday, the Government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation adopted, at first reading, a draft decree aimed at giving initial teacher training its own legal basis for paying the mentor teachers who supervise students in this new programme introduced by the decree of 7 February 2019.
A framework made necessary by the reform of initial teacher training
Now extended to 4 years, teacher training includes a long-term placement to help young teachers better grasp the profession “in the field”. Given that one in three young teachers leaves the profession within the first 5 years, this placement aims to better anchor them in the profession, guided by professional mentor teachers. It was therefore essential to be able to pay them for this task.
Until now, the pay of mentor teachers was based on three decrees adopted between 2001 and 2003, themselves based on decrees due to expire as part of the reform of initial teacher training. These texts therefore did not cover the pay of mentor teachers supervising students trained under the four-year programme.
The draft decree adopted today aims to ensure the continuity of the scheme, by clearly setting out the amount, arrangements and conditions for granting pay to mentor teachers across all the new training programmes.
The new scheme will come into force at the start of the next school year, on 24 August 2026.
Better supporting future teachers: one of the priorities of our Community Policy Statement
This text fully aligns with the objectives of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation government, which aims to better support trainees through trained mentor teachers and reference persons in every institution. By securing the legal basis for their pay, the Government wants to strengthen the quality of initial teacher training and, in time, tackle the teacher shortage.
“Training good teachers starts with recognising and professionalising those who support them in the field. By giving a clear legal basis to the pay of mentor teachers, we secure their role and strengthen the quality of training for future teachers”, concludes Education Minister Valérie Glatigny.