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Belgium (Flemish)

Language/Reading Curriculum in the Fourth Grade

Reading Policy

Freedom of education is a constitutional right in Belgium. The Flemish government doesn’t regulate educational processes and methods. The responsibility for the quality of education lies mainly with the school and the teachers. The Flemish coalition agreement is very clear about this: the government imposes the “whatˮ but not the “how.ˮ3 Schools thereby have an increasing amount of responsibility for their own projects. This allows schools to develop their own educational policies—including their own pedagogical plan, teaching methods, curriculum, and timetables—and to appoint their own staff. Although schools receiving public funding are required to operate within a regulatory framework, they have considerable autonomy.4

Quality control by the Ministry is limited to quality control by the Flemish Inspectorate, which acts as an independent professional system of external supervision. The government, through the eyes of the inspectorate, evaluates whether the efforts of schools toward these attainment targets—including those for Dutch—are sufficient. In addition, the Inspectorate examines whether the curriculum-based objectives are being reached and whether the developmental objectives and cross-curricular attainment targets have been sufficiently pursued.

The concept note Measures for primary education and the first stage of secondary education, which was approved by the Flemish government at the end of May 2016, aims to strengthen language education in primary education.5 The note foresees the option of language initiation in French, English, or German from the first year of primary education. From the third year onward, this can develop into fully fledged foreign language education.

Concerning reading policy, the Flemish government is limited to decisions on the minimum objectives, which is called the core curriculum (i.e., the “whatˮ). Nevertheless, the Minister of Education aims to strengthen primary education with special attention to language, develop a broad framework for an active language policy in schools, and stimulate organizations to take initiatives to promote reading.6,7 Consequently, many organizations take initiatives to enhance literacy and reading, frequently in association with or sustained by the Ministry or one of its departments.

Summary of National Curriculum

Preprimary and primary schools have to implement at least the core curriculum of the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training and have to pursue or achieve the “final objectives.ˮ8 These objectives are “minimum objectives the educational authorities consider necessary and feasible for a particular part of the pupil population … [that] apply to a minimum set of knowledge, skills and attitudes for this part of the pupil population.”

The common core curriculum in preprimary and primary schools consists of physical education, art education, world studies (split into “Man and Societyˮ and “Science and Technologyˮ), mathematics, and Dutch (listening, speaking, reading, writing, strategies, linguistics, and [inter]cultural focus). Cross-curricular themes, particularly for primary education, include learning to learn, social skills, and Information and Communications Technology (ICT). French is a compulsory subject for students in Grades 5 and 6 of primary school. French may be offered from the third year and in the Brussels-Capital Region from the first year of primary education.

The general objectives of preprimary and primary education are translated into developmental objectives and attainment targets that indicate more concretely what is considered desirable and achievable for children in elementary education. The general aims are a broad curriculum, active learning, care for every student, and coherence.

For Dutch, the core curriculum contains more general objectives for students:

  • Transmit information orally and in written form and incorporate various oral and written messages from others into relevant situations in and out of school
  • Think critically about language and about their own and others’ use of the language
  • Know which factors are important in communication and take them into account
  • Have a positive willingness to:
    • Use language in different situations to develop themselves and to give and receive information
    • Think about their own reading behavior
  • Have an unbiased attitude toward linguistic diversity and language variation
  • Find pleasure in dealing with language and linguistic expression

After the “independence” of Flanders, the first core curriculum was developed in 1997 before it was partially updated and expanded in 2010. The Ministry currently focuses on the clear definition of objectives by reducing the core curriculum and by (re)formulating concrete and ambitious goals that meet the needs of the 21st century. However, preprimary and primary schools still have to follow the core curriculum of 2010. The final objectives of mainstream primary education contain final objectives of Dutch listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

During preprimary Dutch reading education, the emphasis is on preparatory instruction that increases phonemic awareness and graphemic identification while introducing concepts that will be used in later education. For this group of students, the final objectives need not be attained. The school must make visible efforts to work toward these objectives and to aim for them. These developmental objectives for Dutch reading state preprimary children are:

  • Able to recreate a message using visual material
  • Able to understand messages related to concrete activities that are represented by symbols
  • Able to distinguish letters from other marks in materials, in books, and on signs
  • Prepared to spontaneously and independently look at books and other sources of information intended for them

Reading instruction in the first year of primary school focuses on the acquisition of decoding skills (technical reading) and includes stories and activities aimed at the development of reading comprehension. From that moment on, instruction in comprehension gradually and systematically increases, aiming to develop autonomous and critical readers. The final objectives for Dutch reading in primary schools are as follows:

  • Students are able to find information (level of processing = description) in:
    • Instructions for a range of activities intended for them
    • The data in tables and diagrams for public use
    • Magazine texts intended for them
  • Students are able to arrange information (level of processing = structuring) that is found in:
    • School and study texts intended for them and instructions for school assignments
    • Stories, children’s books, dialogues, poems, children’s magazines, and youth encyclopedias intended for them
  • Students are able to evaluate information based on their own opinion or on other sources (level of processing=evaluating) such as:
    • Letters and invitations intended for them
    • Advertising texts that are directly related to their own world

Besides these objectives, the core curriculum also includes skills and strategies. Students have to be able to use skills and strategies in relation to the necessary skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in achieving the respective final objectives. Among other things, students must take into account, as indicated in the final objectives:

  • The total listening, speaking, reading, and writing situation
  • The type of the text
  • The level of processing

The core curriculum also emphasizes the development of language criticism, which is needed to achieve the final objectives. Students must be prepared within a specific language context to reflect on:

  • The use of standard, regional, and social language variations
  • Particular attitudes, prejudices, and role play in language
  • The rules of language behavior
  • Certain language activities
  • How certain points of view are adopted and/or revealed through language

Additionally, students must be prepared to:

  • Reflect on the listening, speaking, reading, and writing strategies that are used
  • In a specific context, reflect on the following aspects of language:
    • Sound level
    • Word level (creation of words)
    • Sentence level (word order)
    • Text level (simple structures)

Regarding these final objectives, students must be able to use appropriate terms, including:

  • Sender, receiver, message, intent, situation
  • Noun (plus article), diminutive, verb, stem, ending, prefixes and suffixes, other words
  • Subject, verb ending, part of sentence
  • Heading, paragraph

The Decree on Elementary Education of 25 February 1997 (Article 8) states: “On the basis of a pedagogical project, schools must create an educational and learning environment in which pupils can experience a continuous learning process. This environment must be adapted to the development progress of the pupils.”

School boards (often in conjunction with the educational umbrella organizations) draw up their own curriculum containing the final objectives stated in the core curriculum of the government. That curriculum must be approved by the government upon the advice of the inspectorate. This curriculum is a required guide for preprimary and primary education. The final objectives must be clearly incorporated into curricula, work plans, and textbooks used by the schools. Most schools use a curriculum drawn up by their association of schools (e.g., “GO! Education” for public schools in the Flemish community, government aided public education of local authorities, or government aided private education). These organizations have developed a comprehensive curriculum and accompanying didactic suggestions to achieve the attainment targets of the core curriculum of the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training.