Secondary School in Belgium

Hanne Zmierczak

ENG COMP I

Henderson Lee

November 17th 2011

Secondary School in Belgium

Education is something difficult. Different countries, schools and teachers have different rules. In Belgium, it’s probably the same as in a lot of other countries; you can choose your direction from a wide variety. You’ll find out the differences between the education systems you know and the belgian one when I get more in detail. I just finished my secondary education in Belgium so I will focus on that and my own experiences during those years because it’s freshly in my mind.

With secondary education I mean the period when you’re twelve to eighteen years old. In american terms, I would be speaking about middle school and high school. Normally, you go to the same school for the six years of your secondary education unless you transfer. It is even possible you went to pre school and elementary school at that school. If that’s the case, it wasn’t in the same builings, and you hadn’t the same teachers and principal because there has to be a distinction between the schools.

Secondary school is obligatory for everyone up to sixteen. When you’re sixteen you can drop out of school but only a few people do that. Most of the time, people go to school until they finished secondary school or until they finish college. A large percentage of people go to college after finishing their secondary education because you can get in any school you want to. They don’t take a look at your grades, you don’t have to write application letters etc.

School is practicly free in Belgium. When I say practicly, I mean that the education itself is free but you have to pay fo books and other expenses. You can be a border at several schools; most of the school have borders and people that go home every day. If you’re a border, school will cost more because you have to pay for room and board. Everyone thinks that it’s good school is free but we actually pay a lot of taxes and the money goes to...