Education in Brussels

This paper focuses on the situation of compulsory education in the Brussels Capital
Region. Schools are not isolated entities within which the learning process takes
place and can not be viewed separately from the metropolitan environment within
which they function. In order to gain an insight into this complex issue, the relationship
between both can be summarised by four aspects: the political-institutional
context (the organisation of education), the pedagogical-educational process (what
is taught and how, in what circumstances and with which expected result), the
demographic-geographic situation (the population for whom education is organised),
and the social-cultural context (urban development) (Verlot, 2002). Although
these different aspects are strongly interwoven, this division provides an interesting
means by which the actual situation in Brussels is looked at more closely and by
which the observations and the formulation of problems are made clearer. Finally, a
number of political options are proposed.
Due to the extent of the problems, the higher education and vocational education
sectors are not examined here. They are addressed within topics such as 'Brussels
as a city of knowledge' and 'The Brussels employment market'.