Our colleagues from the daily “Le Soir” relay in their columns this Tuesday an investigation by the student organization Vlaamse Scholierenkoepel. By consulting this, we can see that nearly eight out of ten Flemish pupils are against a shortening of the summer holidays.
A survey that comes a month after the reform of the school calendar in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. On the Dutch-speaking side, the pupils consider that there is no reason to modify the current calendar and a large majority is therefore opposed to the shortening of the summer holidays.
“It’s the only vacation that feels like a real vacation: students can completely relax. It’s difficult for many on other vacations because of homework or approaching deadlines,” said the president of the organization, Mauro Michielsen, at Standaard.
To argue their choice, the Flemish pupils believe that the summer vacation, which lasts more than two months, is an opportunity to have peace of mind for enough time and the weather is also favorable at this time of the year to be on vacation.
After the decision of the FWB to shorten the summer holidays on the French-speaking side (as a reminder, the start of the school year will take place on August 29th and the summer holidays will be reduced by two weeks to add one more to All Saints’ Day and Easter ), the idea had also crossed the mind of Flemish Education Minister Ben Weyts (N-VA). The latter had then asked the education sector to position itself on a possible revision of the annual rhythms.
Several Flemish unions opposed it and it is therefore now the Vlaamse Scholierenkoepel which, by issuing this survey with 5,300 respondents, demonstrates that the wish of the pupils is to remain in the same pattern as in recent years.