What can Flanders learn from England’s attempt to reconnect education with society?
Pearson’s 2026 School and College Report, drawing on more than 50,000 contributions gathered since 2022, has brought a familiar Flemish question into sharper focus: can schools strengthen basic knowledge while preparing young people more convincingly for work and life?
For households, the quality of literacy, numeracy, guidance and vocational education shapes children’s study choices, tutoring needs and employment prospects. For Flemish businesses, a poor school-to-work connection prolongs shortages in technical, care, construction and education occupations.
published its 2026 School and College Report this summer after gathering more than 50,000 contributions from teachers, students and education specialists since 2022, finding broad demand for an education system that combines academic foundations with digital, vocational and transferable skills. The report has now entered the debate in Vlaanderen, where schools are already rewriting curricula and confronting weak results in mathematics, persistent teacher shortages and a labour market that struggles to recruit technical workers.
The English report does not argue that schools should become training departments for employers. Its more useful message is that academic knowledge, personal development and readiness for work cannot be treated as unrelated projects. reports that only 3% of surveyed UK primary teachers and 6% of secondary teachers believe the system currently provides enough vocational learning options. It also records rising teacher optimism about artificial intelligence, while warning that many pupils still lack dependable core digital skills.
That balance matters. A school cannot chase every passing demand from business or technology, because pupils need knowledge that remains valuable when particular jobs disappear. Yet, as the analysis accompanying the report argues, good education cannot be made with its back turned to society. The practical challenge is to create durable links with workplaces, cultural institutions and local communities without allowing outside interests to dictate what happens in the classroom.
is trying to make that connection through a wider curriculum reform. The independent chaired by Professor Becky Francis recommended retaining a knowledge-rich curriculum while improving oral communication, digital and media literacy, inclusion and the breadth of subjects available. The UK government accepted much of that direction and plans to publish a revised national curriculum in spring 2027, with teaching scheduled to begin in 2028. Its response also proposed removing the English Baccalaureate performance measure and revising Progress 8, partly to give arts, languages and vocationally relevant subjects more room alongside English, mathematics and science.
is moving through its own reform cycle, but from a difficult starting point. The ’s 2026 standardised tests covered almost 3,500 schools and more than 800,000 individual tests. Official results showed that 69% of sixth-year primary pupils reached the reading-comprehension target, but only 29% met the target for mathematical problem-solving. In the second year of secondary education’s A stream, just 17% met the problem-solving target. These are not directly comparable with ’s survey findings, but together they expose the same policy dilemma: schools must improve fundamentals while also teaching pupils to apply what they know.
For families, this is more concrete than a dispute between competing educational philosophies. Weak literacy or numeracy can narrow a teenager’s choice of study programme, increase the need for paid tutoring and make the transition into work less secure. Better guidance, credible technical pathways and meaningful contact with employers can help families judge a course by its content and prospects rather than by the old hierarchy in which academically oriented education automatically carries more prestige.
The business implications are equally direct. ’s 2026 list shows that labour shortages persist despite a 7% year-on-year rise in jobseekers without work in December 2025. Technicians, nurses, construction workers and several teaching profiles remain difficult to recruit. In an earlier plan reported by , the Flemish employers’ organisation said nine out of ten companies had difficulty filling technical vacancies and called for longer-term partnerships between schools and businesses, more work-based learning and practice teachers with current industry experience.
Employers nevertheless have to earn a place in that partnership. Offering a single company visit or donating equipment is not the same as helping to build good education. Sustained cooperation requires placements with real learning objectives, trained workplace mentors and access for pupils whose families do not already possess professional networks. Trade unions, teachers and schools also need a voice, both to protect educational independence and to prevent work experience from becoming unpaid low-value labour.
There are genuine opposing priorities. and employers facing shortages want quicker alignment between courses and available jobs. Teacher organisations and education providers are more likely to stress workload, staffing and the danger of adding new expectations before schools can reliably deliver existing ones. The English Francis review offers a possible middle course: preserve a coherent, knowledge-rich core, but leave enough space for communication, creativity, technical education and preparation for adult life.
does not need to copy ’s curriculum or its accountability system. The two systems organise schools and qualifications differently, and England’s reforms have not yet been tested in classrooms. What Flanders can borrow is the method: consult pupils, teachers, unions, universities and employers together; distinguish durable capabilities from short-term recruitment needs; and judge reforms by whether they improve both learning and access to opportunity.
The next Flemish test will be implementation. New minimum goals are being phased into primary education, while the standardised Flemish tests will track knowledge and learning gains. Policymakers will now have to show how stronger foundations connect to technical study, digital competence and informed career choices without expanding teachers’ workload indefinitely. will publish its final revised curriculum in 2027. Until outcomes are available, the most important unanswered question on both sides of the Channel is not whether schools should face society, but how they can do so while remaining places of education rather than instruments of the latest policy or labour-market demand.
Impact
Regional — Flanders is introducing new minimum goals and expanding standardised testing while employers press for stronger technical pathways. The English debate supplies a comparison, not a ready-made model.
International — The article uses England as a cross-border policy comparison for Flanders, particularly on curriculum breadth, core knowledge and vocational preparation. Pearson’s report and the UK government’s separate Curriculum and Assessment Review offer evidence from another education system, but neither directly governs Belgian schools. For EU staff and internationally mobile families, the comparison helps explain how two neighbouring systems are responding to similar skills and school-to-work pressures. Any Flemish changes would still be decided through Belgium’s community-level education structures rather than through EU institutions.
What it means for you
Parents choosing Flemish schools or study pathways should examine each school’s mathematics support, career guidance and access to technical or workplace-based learning rather than assume vocational provision is uniform. The 2026 Flemish test results provide a concrete prompt to discuss problem-solving performance with schools, especially for pupils approaching the transition from primary to secondary education or choosing a secondary pathway. Employers facing shortages can monitor VDAB’s 2026 shortage-occupation list and engage with schools or training providers. No immediate fee, entitlement or enrolment rule changes follow from Pearson’s report itself.
Opposing perspectives
- Flemish employers and Voka
Employers argue that schools need stronger, sustained relationships with workplaces, better technical orientation and more teachers with recent industry experience. They see weak transitions into skilled occupations as both a lost opportunity for pupils and a constraint on Flemish growth.
- Teachers and education providers
Teaching staff and school networks caution that every new social or economic expectation adds work to an already stretched system. They prioritise staffing, coherent curricula and strong basic knowledge, and resist treating short-term vacancies as the organising principle of education.
- Broad-curriculum reformers
Supporters of the Francis review’s approach reject a choice between knowledge and practical capability. They favour a common academic foundation supplemented by oracy, digital literacy, creativity, vocational exposure and better preparation for adult life.
Who, where and what
Key people, places and terms in this story
Belgian community and region whose education and labour-market policies are compared with England’s approach.
Education system used as the article’s cross-border comparison for Flanders.
Government responsible for Flemish education policy, minimum goals and standardised testing.
Belgian newspaper whose reporting supplied the article’s principal journalistic source.
Belgian public-service news outlet reporting on Voka’s vocational education proposal.
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Belgian community and region whose education and labour-market policies are compared with England’s approach.
Education system used as the article’s cross-border comparison for Flanders.
Standardised assessments whose results showed low mathematical problem-solving attainment.
Official English review supporting a broad curriculum grounded in strong core knowledge.
Alternative name used for the official review, distinguished from Pearson’s report.
Government responsible for Flemish education policy, minimum goals and standardised testing.
Belgian newspaper whose reporting supplied the article’s principal journalistic source.
Belgian public-service news outlet reporting on Voka’s vocational education proposal.
Education company responsible for the recurring UK School and College Report.
Survey-based report examining resilience, digital change and preparation for life and work.
Government department responsible for the official Curriculum and Assessment Review.
UK parliamentary research service providing background on England’s school curriculum.
Flemish employers’ organisation advocating stronger technical and vocational education.
Flanders’ public employment service tracking jobseekers and shortage occupations.
VDAB publication identifying occupations affected by labour shortages in 2026.
Sources & evidence
- View sourceDe MorgenPrimaryprimary· demorgen.be· 26 August 2026Retrieved 26 August 2026· 37 days ago· Dated
- View sourcePearson School and College Report 2026academic· pearson.comRetrieved 26 August 2026
- View sourceUK Department for Education — Curriculum and Assessment Reviewofficial· gov.uk· 5 November 2025Retrieved 26 August 2026· 331 days ago· Dated
- View sourceHouse of Commons Library — The school curriculum in Englandcorroborating· commonslibrary.parliament.uk· 21 November 2025Retrieved 26 August 2026· 315 days ago· Dated
Related topics
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This briefing was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by a Belgium Impulse editor before publication. methodology.