10 February, 2011

Flanders: "White schools are becoming whiter, black schools are becoming blacker"

Flanders: "White schools are becoming whiter, black schools are becoming blacker"

Via VRT:

According to Mieke Van Hecke, the head of the Catholic schools in Flanders, efforts to do away with so-called concentration schools have been fruitless.

In Flanders, the word "concentratiescholen" is used for schools where too many pupils of a certain race, descent or social class are sitting together, in other words, schools that have no "healthy" mix between local pupils and immigrants.


In order to tackle the problem of these so-called concentration schools, the education department had worked out several measures. However, these do not seem to work. "White schools are becoming whiter, black schools are becoming blacker", Ms Van Hecke points out. She stresses that the schools are not to be blamed. "You have a lot of factors playing a role, like the place of residence, mobility and information about school enrolment options and rules."

Ms Van Hecke openly asks whether these measures should be continued. "Do we still want to look for ways to create a healthy mix between local pupils and pupils of foreign descent? Or do we choose to give vulnerable schools more cash, to allow them to adopt a different approach towards strong and weaker pupils?"

(source)

 

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