Public Education in Belgium: Improving Outcome While Reducing Cost
Selected Issues Papers, March 26, 2025
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- Public Education in Belgium: Improving Outcome While Reducing Cost
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Jean-Jacques Hallaert
- Published: March 26, 2025
- Series: Selected Issues Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798229005098.018
Summary findings
- Educational outcomes in Belgium are comparable to peers but achieved at a higher cost.
- The public wage bill for education is higher than in peers, reflecting smaller student-to-teacher ratios and less teaching time.
- Belgium experiences teacher shortages despite the higher public wage bill.
Implications for the economy and labor market
- Reforms to education would help increase the employment rate.
- Reducing the skills mismatch would reduce the need for firms to provide training to upgrade skills.
- Improving education efficiency would boost productivity.
- Better education outcomes and efficiency would increase the creation and diffusion of innovation.
- Ultimately, these reforms would improve potential growth.
Policy recommendations and priorities
- Increase the efficiency of public spending on education while achieving greater equality of educational outcomes.
- Address teacher shortages in the context of maintaining or improving teaching capacity and learning time.
- Target reforms that lower the skills mismatch between graduates and labor market needs to reduce firm-level training burdens and support productivity and innovation.
Source: Jean-Jacques Hallaert (March 26, 2025), Selected Issues Papers 2025, 021.
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- Sipea2025021