Education in Belgium: the three communities, school stages, CESS and the Toelatingsexamen arts

In short

Belgium does not have a single national school system. Education is the responsibility of the three Communities: the Flemish Community (Dutch-speaking), the French Community (also called Wallonia-Brussels Federation) and the German-speaking Community. Each community decides its own curriculum, school inspection and diplomas. The federal government only sets a few shared rules, such as the ages at which compulsory education begins and ends and the minimum conditions for awarding a diploma. In Brussels, families choose between schools of the Flemish and the French Community. Because of this split, the details below are general, and every family or student should check the rules of the community whose school they will attend.

School stages

1. Nursery school: Optional in the early years and free of charge. Children from about two and a half or three years old attend in all communities, and schooling is compulsory from the age of five.
2. Primary school: Six years, usually from age six to twelve. Pupils learn the language of instruction, mathematics, science, languages, arts and physical education. In the French Community the end of primary school is marked by the Certificat d'études de base (CEB), a common external test.
3. Secondary school: Six years, usually from age twelve to eighteen, divided into three stages of two years. Pupils follow a track: general education that prepares for university, technical education, arts education, or vocational education that prepares for a job. In the French Community a certificate at the end of the first stage (the CE1D) is also a common external test.
4. Compulsory education continues until the age of eighteen, although from about fifteen or sixteen a pupil can combine part-time study with training or work.

Secondary diplomas

In the French Community, pupils who pass the sixth year obtain the Certificat d'enseignement secondaire supérieur (CESS), which allows them to apply to higher education. In Flanders, the school's class council decides whether a pupil receives the secondary education diploma, and there is no single exam taken by every pupil at the end of secondary school. In the German-speaking Community, schools follow a similar structure, and pupils receive a secondary diploma from their school. A secondary diploma from any of the three communities is recognised across Belgium.

Higher education

Higher education is also run by the communities. Each offers universities and university colleges (hautes écoles in the French Community and hogescholen in Flanders), and the French Community also has higher schools of the arts. Studies follow the European model of a bachelor's degree followed by a master's degree. For most programmes, holders of a Belgian secondary diploma can enrol directly.

For selective programmes, such as medical and dental studies, applicants must pass a specialised entrance examination. In the Flemish Community, candidates take the Toelatingsexamen arts (and tandarts), a centralised examination administered by the Flemish government covering biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics alongside generic problem-solving competencies. In the French Community, a comparable entrance competition is organised by the government agency ARES for admission to medical and dental faculties. Applicants should consult the latest admission criteria published by the relevant community before sitting these entrance tests.

Students from abroad

Students with a diploma from outside Belgium usually need to have their qualification recognised as equivalent before they enrol, and they must show that they know the language of the course, which is Dutch, French, German or sometimes English. Each community has its own recognition service, and the institution can advise on the documents that are needed.

Languages in schools

The language of instruction is Dutch in Flemish schools, French in French Community schools and German in German-speaking schools. Pupils learn at least one more national or foreign language, and many schools offer English from the primary or early secondary years. Language of instruction is one of the main reasons why the Brussels region offers two separate school systems. Some schools also teach part of the curriculum in a second language, and there are international and European schools in and around Brussels that follow other programmes. Parents who move between communities should ask the school how pupils are placed in the new system, and how their earlier results are counted.

Practising on GetMyMockTest

These are practice questions we wrote for study. They are not the official exams, and we do not claim they match an exam's current format. Free practice for Belgium:

• CESS and entrance exam (cess-examen-entree-belgium): mathematics, French language and literature, and the history of Belgium, with timed tests and flashcards.
• Toelatingsexamen arts (toelatingsexamen-arts-belgium): biology and life sciences, chemistry and biochemistry, and physics and mathematics, preparing applicants for science admission tests in Flanders.
• Belgian general knowledge (gk-be): politics and society, geography and nature, and science, arts and culture.
• IELTS, TOEFL, SAT and IB Diploma: international exams that some students in Belgium also take.