Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts has not started a project of the Flemish Community Commission (VGC) in which multilingualism and the use of the home language in Dutch-speaking schools in Brussels is stimulated. According to the N-VA minister, the project creates “confusion” about the role of Dutch as a language of instruction and there is no scientific evidence for the use of the home language in the classroom. He answered that to a question from N-VA MP Annabel Tavernier. Coalition partner CD&V does believe that there should be “openness” to the use of the home language.
At the initiative of VGC board member Sven Gatz responsible for Education and School Construction, the Flemish Community Commission launched a call for projects to stimulate initiatives on multilingualism in Dutch-speaking schools in the Brussels-Capital Region. “We want to focus on multilingualism of Dutch, French and English in our schools, in combination with the home languages of the students,” said Gatz.
Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts does not react exactly ‘amused’ to those plans. The N-VA minister was not informed of the plans and he also has substantive criticism. According to Minister Weyts, it is not allowed to deviate from the basic agreement that Dutch is the language of instruction in Dutch-language education. “It is not a good idea to deviate from those basic agreements. Dutch is like the cornstarch in our education,” says Weyts. According to him, there is also “no scientific evidence” demonstrating the usefulness of using the home language in the classroom.
“counterproductive”
Party colleague Annabel Tavernier fully agrees with this attitude. “Dutch forms the foundation on which all other forms of learning are based,” says the N-VA member of parliament. She also finds it incomprehensible that board member Gatz “rolls out such calls for projects in times when knowledge of Dutch is declining and education is falling in the international rankings”. Vlaams Belang MP Jan Laeremans also calls such projects “counterproductive for education”.
CD&V MP Loes Vandromme, on behalf of her colleague Hilal Yalçin, made a slightly different sound. “We should not deviate from Dutch as the language of instruction, but there must be openness to the home language, especially in a multilingual context such as Brussels. The home language should no longer be seen as ‘something dirty’”, it sounded.
Minister Weyts disagrees. “The greater the diversity and the greater the number of different home languages, the greater the need for one connecting language, namely Dutch. We respect the home language, but it should be used at home and not in the classroom. Any other message given about this without scientific evidence sows confusion and ambiguity,” concluded the education minister.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss out on any of the stars.