New attainment Targets on “cultural awareness and cultural expression” in secondary education

The Flemish Government approved on 13 July 2018 the new attainment targets for the first grade of secondary education (decreet betreffende de onderwijsdoelen voor de eerste graad van het secundair onderwijs). From 1 September 2019, these new educational objectives for secondary education were gradually introduced. On February 12, 2021, new final objectives and specific final objectives for the second and third stage of secondary education were approved by decree. However, the Constitutional Court annulled this decree on June 16, 2022. The annulled final objectives were simplified and the new final objectives or minimum goals for the second and third stage of secondary education were finally approved on July 12, 2023. These new final objectives will be implemented from September 1, 2023.

These new attainment targets are developed in function of 16 key competences. One of these key competences concerns “cultural awareness and cultural expression”. It consists of four pillars (see also 8.3):

• Perceiving and conceptualizing expressions of art and culture;
• interpreting expressions of art and culture in relation to the social, historical and geographical context in which they manifest themselves;
• experiencing expressions of art and culture and expressing appreciation for them;
• Using imagination in a targeted way when creating artistic work

Termination of the Participation Decree

On January 12, 2024, the Flemish government approved a collective decree (in Dutch) that groups a number of substantive and technical adjustments to existing decrees.

This decree has three objectives and two of them are relevant for this chapter:

1. The optimization and reorientation of the Participation Decree (and also the Local Cultural Policy Decree): In the context of a reorientation of the participation policy, various subsidy lines from the decree of January 18, 2008, containing supportive and stimulating measures to promote participation in culture, youth work, and sports, are being transferred to other legislative frameworks. 
2. The Exchange Platform: The decree amends the decree of June 23, 2023, on subsidizing core organizations to steer the digital transformation of the cultural sector. Firstly, as part of a reorientation of the participation policy, the tasks of the participation institution for the renewal and deepening of the participation of disadvantaged groups (currently assigned to Demos) are transferred to publiq. Secondly, a legal basis is created for the operation of the Exchange Platform at publiq. Through this platform, data on leisure offerings are connected with the demand from the participant. In the future, there is also room for the exchange of data from other domains (e.g., cultural and youth infrastructure).