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by Steven Verjans, based on an early version by Paul Bacsich and James Kay

For entities in Belgium see Category:Belgium


Overview

Belgium - in full the Kingdom of Belgium - is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 km2 (11,787 square miles) and has a population of about 11,000,000 (status on January, 1st, 2012)<ref>Belgian Federal Gouvernment statistics - http://statbel.fgov.be/nl/modules/publications/statistiques/bevolking/bevolking_-_cijfers_bevolking_2010_-_2012.jsp</ref>.

Belgium is a federal state in Europe with a constitutional monarchy, founded in 1830, and its capital is Brussels.

The citizens of Belgium are called Belgians. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home for two main linguistic groups, the Dutch speakers/Flemings and the French speakers, mostly Walloons, plus a small group of German speakers. Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north, with 59% of the population, and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia with 31% of the population. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region and near the Walloon Region, and has 10% of the population. A small German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the political history and a complex system of government.


Regions and Communities

Map of Belgium indicating the language areas. From top left to bottom right: the Dutch language area, the bilingual area of Brussels-Capital, the French language area, and the German language area.

Map of Belgium indicating the four language areas<ref>Source: National Geographical Institute of Belgium. (Colour changes made by author). - http://www.ngi.be/Templates/zoom.htm?doctitle=Belgi%EB+:+taalgebieden&image=../images/2/11/regling.gif&x=551&y=556&wx=600&wy=600</ref>


Belgium is a double federation of:



* The most important or most frequent optional responsibilities of the provinces are education (the provinces organise educational institutions, secondary or higher), culture, social welfare, heritage sites and assets, etc.


Source: The Education System in the Flemish Community of Belgium (PDF - EN - 5 pages), 2006/07

Further information

For further general information see Wikipedia:Belgium.

Education in Belgium

Overview of education system in Belgium

Education in Belgium is regulated and for the larger part financed by one of the three communities: the Flemish community, the French community and the German-speaking community. All three communities have a unified school system with small differences from one community to another. The role of the federal Belgian state is limited to:

  • the determination of the end and the beginning of compulsory school attendance,
  • the mininum requirements for the issuing of diplomas,
  • the regularisation of retirement for the employees in the educational system.

These three competences are in the hands of the federal state. Indirectly the federal state finances the communities out of tax revenues. In essence, education in Belgium is the full responsibility of Flemish, French and German-speaking communities<ref>http://www.belgium.be/en/education/coming_to_study_in_belgium/</ref>. The remainder of this paragraph describes those issues that are common to the three communities.

The organization and governance of schools throughout Belgium can be divided in three groups:

  1. Public schools organized and governed by the communities (GO! Onderwijs van de Vlaamse gemeenschap; Réseau de la Communauté française; Gemeinschaftsunterrichtswesen)
  2. Subsidized public schools (officieel gesubsidieerd onderwijs; réseau officiel subventionné; Offizielles subventioniertes Unterrichtswesen), organized and governed by provinces and municipalities
  3. Subsidized free schools (vrij gesubsidieerd onderwijs; réseau libre subventionné; Freies subventioniertes Unterrichtswesen), organized and governed by independent non-for-profit associations, the majority of which are affiliated with the Catholic church

The latter is the largest group, both in number of schools and in number of pupils.


Structure of the national education system

The structure of the educational system in the three communities is summarised in the three diagrams below, which show the different school levels and types arranged according to the learner's age.<ref>Copyright: Eurydice - http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/</ref> The diagrams show that education in Belgium is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 18.

Flemish Community

National education structure in Flemish Community

French Community

National education structure in French Community

German-speaking Community

National education structure in German-Speaking Community Diagram key

For a general description of education in Belgium see Belgium.


e-learning

There are no e-learning initiatives taken by the Belgian federal state, or common to the three communities. E-learning will be discussed at the specific Community pages.


Quality procedures

With regard to compulsory education, the Belgian educational system does not have a central state-organised exam for pupils at the end of secondary education. All three communities have separate quality assurance systems combining internal and external quality evaluation procedures. Legislators in the three communities have identified common learning outcomes that pupils are expected to attain during the different levels of education, encompassing both knowledge and skills at a high level of abstraction. These learning outcomes are then developed into learning curricula by the maintaining bodies of the schools. Independent inspection services perform regular external evaluations (e.g. every 5 years) in order to assess the degree to which each school's individual approach guarantees the attainment of the common learning outcomes identified by the legislators.

With regard to higher education and adult education & training, the three communities have more divergent procedures.

More details about educational quality procedures in each of the communities can be found on the Eurydice website<ref> Eurydice: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/</ref>:


Internet in Belgium

According to Eurostat, 78% of Belgian households had access to the Internet in 2012 <ref> Eurostat - Level of household Internet access</ref>, over 90% of which have broadband access<ref>Eurostat - Level of household broadband Internet access</ref>.

Internet in compulsory education

According to the research project EU Kids Online (2010), about 70% of children between the ages of 9 and 16 have access to Internet at school in the Flemish Community, compared to only 30% in the French community. Community policies are quite different, and there is no common provision of (broadband) Internet for schools.


Internet in Higher Education

BELNET is the Belgian national research network that was established in 1993 as part of the Federal Science Policy Office. With its network, that has an extremely high capacity, BELNET guarantees Belgian universities, recognised research centers, and educational establishments the very best possibilities with regard to Internet connection and use of the research network. Since 1995, Belgian public bodies and departments can also make use of the services of BELNET. At present, approximately 625.000 end users in more than 185 Belgian institutions have a high-speed Internet connection via BELNET. In addition, BELNET manages the Belgian Internet exchange BNIX ("Belgian National Internet Exchange"). This node is a centralised infrastructure that enables Internet Service Providers (ISPs) active in the Belgian market to exchange traffic between one another. Thanks to BNIX, the traffic between Belgian Internet users does not have to make a detour over any foreign countries. <ref>ReVica/VISCED page for Belgium - http://virtualcampuses.eu/index.php/Belgium</ref>


Copyright law in Belgium

The main Belgian law related to copyrights is the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (of June 30, 1994), which has been amended a number of times since then. - The amended version is available in Dutch and French. The main principles are:

  • The object of copyright protection is a work of literature or art. However, copyright does not protect ideas, thoughts, principles, methods or concepts. Only when your work has received a concrete and original form, will it qualify for protection.
  • In order to obtain copyright protection, the author does not need to follow any formal procedure, as copyright arises upon creation of the work. In principle, the term of protection under Belgian copyright law is 70 years following the death of the (last surviving) author.
  • The author obtains two sets of exclusive rights over his work: (1) moral rights, which are inalienable, and (2) economic rights, which can be licensed and/or transferred, in whole or in part, to one or more third parties.
    • Moral rights are: (a) right of publication, (b) recognition of paternity ( and (c) respect for the work (integrity)
    • Economic rights are: (d) right of reproduction, (e) right of communication to the public, and (f) right of distribution, including the right to authorise rental or lending.
  • The economic rights are somewhat limited in some cases where the lawmaker has intended to promote the free use of the works. Those cases are the copyright exceptions or, as sometimes called in common language, fair use. Those exceptions are legally determined, which means that what is not provided by the law is not allowed.<ref>Dusollier, S. (2005). D2 - Intellectual property rights report, p.5. Eurea project deliverable 2 [1]</ref> The law lists the conditions under which fair use of copyrighted works is allowed (either for free, or against remuneration).

Neighbouring rights are related to the individuals performing or broadcasting the work of others. The term of protection of neighbouring rights under Belgian law is 50 years following the death of the (last surviving) performer.


Copyright law in Education

Exceptions to the Belgian copyright law <ref>Based on the description provided by the Flemish ministry of education - http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/auteursrechten/</ref> include personal use, educational and scientific use, amongst others. The law distinguishes between situations where no (licensing) fee is required and those for which a fee has been decided.

Exceptions to copyright rules without a fee

  • Works for which the copyrighted period (70, resp. 50 years) have expired can be freely used.
  • Private performance within the home or during school activities, where no entrance fee has been asked. Private performace during school activity are restricted to those where only school members are present (i.e. students and teachers).
  • Quotation right: small pieces of copyrighted materials may be used in education without prior consent of the author, provided the quotation is (a) clearly related to learning goals, (b) is situated and commented in a larger context, and (c) the source and the author are mentioned.
  • The compilation of an anthology intended for teaching shall require the consent of the authors of whose works extracts are compiled in that way.
  • Current events: "reproduction and communication to the public, for the purposes of information, of short fragments of works or of works of fine art as a whole in connection with reports on current events" <ref>From the English translation of the 1994 copyright law - http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text.jsp?file_id=125254</ref>


OER Initiatives in Belgium

There are no OER initiatives taken by the Belgian federal state common to the three communities. OER will be discussed at the specific Community pages.


References

<references> </references>


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