Secularization and Compartmentalization in the Belgian Educational System.

This paper considers the different groups and positions which formulated problems concerning a revision of the School Pact in Belgium. School Pact is an agreement between three political parties in which an accord is made and directives for the future are noted. The problems which existed in 1958 in relation to education were numerous: the maintenance of the constitutional freedom of education; the place and the recognition of state schools in the entire educational system; the definition of the nature of the official neutral school and the position of religious doctrine and non-confessional ethics therein; the democratization of education. Through the School Pact, the Catholics also accepted the neutrality of state education. To oppose the power of the Catholic Church concerning education, the liberals were forced once again to defend state education regardless of their preference for private initiative in other fields. Between 1958 and 1967, 376 new schools and 1,694 sections were established in the state educational system while 465 Catholic schools and 2,489 sections were absorbed into the subsidy system. In the law of the 29th of May 1959, free choice refers to the choice between a neutral and a confessional school, between religious doctrine and non-confessional moral instruction in all neutral schools.