School Pact

The school pact is an agreement concerning education in Belgium, negotiated by the principal parties of the time, and ratified in 1959 by the Belgian government.

It makes it possible to the parents to freely choose the education which they want to give to their child: they can thus register it freely is in an official school (resulting from the State, provinces or communes…) maybe in a school " libre" (essentially of the Catholic schools).

School pact

The school pact applies to teaching guard, primary education, secondary and special (teaching for the handicapped people), like with nonuniversity higher education. It takes part of some great principles: school peace (appeasing of the tensions of competition between networks), freedom of choice by the parents, exemption from payment in obligatory teaching whatever the network (the State pays all the teachers who have the titles necessary for the matter that they teach).

The school pact made following the tensions born of competition enters the official network and the free network (this last primarily making up of Catholic schools). Since decades, the question of religious teaching at the school poses problem and opposes the Church to the liberals and to the Socialists.

The school Pacte is typical in the manner of solving the problems in Belgium, the latter resulting from three cleavages opposing:

1) the left and the right
2) Walloon and the Flemings
3) Laic and Catholic

(see History of Belgium of 1945 to 1993)

History

Of 1954 with 1958, a government with the very marked laicism (government Liberal PSB and ), chaired by Achille Van Acker had succeeded a government homogeneous PSC the very marked clericalism (and reigning without division, the PSC having the absolute majority with the Senate as with the Room).

The Parti social-Christian obtains the absolute majority of the seats to the Senate, but not to the Room. A homogeneous government PSC is set up. It is very slightly minority with the Room and it is supported by both or three liberal deputies who allow him to keep the confidence of the Parliament.

The P.S.C required the equality between the network known as official (the State itself or the subsidized public education of the provinces in particular), and the catholic network said free (the two networks dividing about the manpower of the pupils according to a proportion 50/50 in Wallonia, in Flanders free teaching accounts for 75% of the school population).

The PSC of Théo Lefèvre, the PSB of max Buset, the Liberals of Roger Motz starts negotiations. The pact is ratified by the Congresses of the three traditional parties (at the time, there were only small formations like the Volksunie and strongly reduced PCB since its successes of the Release where it had reached 21 elected officials, 68% of the voices in Wallonia), on November 16th, 1958. This pact will be ratified by the Parliament.

Cleavage Laymen/Catholiques does not disappear, but the consequences of this opposition from now on will be controlled by the three great parties (according to the logic of the pacification such as the CRISP developed it), more especially as the Liberals will position partly differently than according to this cleavage, joined by after - but only really today - by the PS (which for some time accommodates catholics on its lists) and the PSC which became the CDH (humanistic Center democratic) and lost its Christian label, without to give up the combat for free teaching.

(See also: school War in Belgium of 1879 to 1884)

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