29 August, Thursday, 2024
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HomeSourcesthetimes.co.ukFlemish nationalists bid to ban French and German from Belgian schools

Flemish nationalists bid to ban French and German from Belgian schools

Flemish nationalists are demanding a ban on languages other than Dutch in schools, both in playgrounds and classrooms.

Flanders, a devolved region similar to Scotland within Belgium’s federal constitution, has education under the control of the Flemish government, largely dominated by nationalists.

Ben Weyts, the Flemish education minister and a member of the nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), has pushed for a ban due to concerns that a significant number of primary school children, potentially a quarter of them, do not speak Dutch – the primary language of Flemish Belgians.

“We have to make it clear that Dutch is the language of instruction at school,” he told the newspaper De Standaard. “Allowing all languages to be discussed is not possible, so you have to discriminate.

© Times Media Limited 2023.

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