This report on the Quality and Equity of Schooling in the German-speaking Community of Belgium is informed by international experience and best practices from OECD countries. The review process involved the preparation of a background report by the German-speaking Community and a two-week virtual visit to conduct interviews with a wide range of experts and stakeholders, which took place in May 2021 (see Annex B).
The OECD review team is indebted to the Government of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, Minister of Education and Scientific Research, Lydia Klinkenberg, and her team for supporting the review. We would like to express our deep gratitude to Rusbeh Nawab, who co-ordinated the German-speaking Community’s involvement throughout the review proces, as well as to the many staff members within the Ministry of the German-speaking Community, whose support was invaluable for our work. We are grateful to all those who contributed to the prepartion of the background report and to the wide range of stakeholders who participated in our interviews and generously contributed their views, experiences and knowledge. We are very grateful to the many stakeholders who provided their time, including students, teachers and school school leaders, representatives of various ministry departments, agencies and education institutions, local authorities, teacher unions, researchers and the private sector.
The support of the European Commission for the Education Policy Review of the German-speaking Community is gratefully acknowledged. The European Commission provided financial support from the Erasmus+ programme to co-finance the review and supported the review by participating in virtual meetings and providing guidance, expertise and feedback on drafts of the report. The review team would like to thank in particular Susanne Conze, Livia Ruszthy and Brigitte Devos of Unit A.2: Country Analysis for their support.
This report was prepared as part of the OECD’s Reviews of National Policies for Education, undertaken by the Policy Advice and Implementation Division within the Directorate for Education and Skills. The OECD review team was composed of Luka Boeskens (OECD Secretariat), who co-ordinated the report and led the work on Chapters 1 and 4, Lucie Cerna (OECD Secretariat), who led the work on Chapter 3 and Prof. Rita Nikolai (University of Augsburg), who joined the team as an external expert and led the work on Chapter 2 (see Annex A). Cecilia Mezzanotte (OECD Secretariat) provided significant analytical support and co-drafted Chapter 3. Deborah Nusche participated in the virtual review visit and both Deborah Nusche and Karine Tremblay provided overall guidance for the review.
Within the OECD, the review benefited from the guidance and leadership of Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills, and Paulo Santiago, Head of the Education Policy Advice and Implementation Division. Marco Kools, Beatriz Pont and Giovanni Maria Semeraro provided advice and valuable feedback on drafts of the report. We are also grateful to Daiana Torres Lima, who provided administrative support throughout the project and co-ordinated the publication production with Rachel Linden, to Anne-Victoire Suteau who assisted with the report’s editing, and to Cécile Bily who oversaw resource management support.