FAQ

As stipulated in the law of 29.08.1953 approving the Paris Convention of 20 March 1952, the State, in the exercise of the functions it will assume in the field of education and teaching, will respect the right of parents to provide such education and teaching in accordance with their religious and philosophical convictions.

The above-mentioned law implies that children subject to it do not necessarily have to attend a public educational establishment. We have found nothing in the law stipulating that children may not be withdrawn from school during the school year, which would be in contradiction with the right to withdraw from school and fundamental rights.

We know of families who have withdrawn from school during the year. In practice, however, when the request is made during the course of the year, some headteachers have sometimes been slow to give their authorisation, so if possible, it's better to make arrangements in advance, or even to insist that authorisation be given as soon as possible.

* The term child is used here in the legal sense of "minor".

A headteacher cannot arbitrarily refuse to give permission. He must have a serious reason for doing so, for example that it is not in the best interests of the child, or that the educational environment proposed by the parents is deficient or negligent. If this is the case, remedies are available.

As mentioned in Chapter 4, this rarely happens, and when it does, it's a real obstacle course over the long term, requiring a great deal of resilience. It's best to avoid such situations as much as possible. Sometimes a directorate refuses to renew an authorisation when it considers that the foundations of the syllabus have not been met (see our comments on points c, d and e on this subject).

* The term child is used here in the legal sense of "minor".

Luxembourg has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Article 13 deals with the right to education.[1]. Primary education must be universal and take into account the culture and needs of the community.

A Grand-Ducal regulation of 11 August 2011 sets out the curriculum for the four cycles of basic education. The basic education syllabus can be consulted at the following link in French:

https://men.public.lu/dam-assets/catalogue-publications/courriers-de-leducation-nationale/numeros-speciaux/plan-etudes-ecoles-fondamentale.pdf

There was a German, English and Portuguese version, which may still be available on request from the Ministry of Education or the directorates.[2]

The syllabus is a reference framework designed to teach the "fundamental educational needs" for living in our society, including reading, writing, arithmetic, language learning and basic general knowledge. The current Luxembourg curriculum is no longer adapted to the needs of society and will be amended.

A new study plan[3] for basic education is currently being developed and will be based on four thematic pillars:

• Students' well-being (nutrition, movement, motor skills, emotional and sexual education, resilience, digital consumption);
• Participation (responsibility, commitment, giving students a voice, contributing to the transformation of society with a view to sustainability);
• multilingualism (literacy in German or French, clarification of the role of vehicular languages) and
• digitality (media literacy, information and communication skills, critical thinking, creativity and problem solving (e.g. coding), data protection and cyber security in the digital world).

Article 2(18) of the Law of 6 February 2009 stipulates that mastery of the core skills set out in the basic education curriculum is expected at the end of each cycle. This mastery requirement does not apply to pupils with special needs (Art. 2 §16).

Article 6 of the same law stipulates that the aim of basic education is to ensure that pupils progressively develop the skills required by the Base.

The provisions of this article also apply to home education and private education.

The State is thus relieving itself of an obligation to achieve results in terms of the acquisition of skills, which it is, moreover, illusory to try to guarantee, and it would therefore be discriminatory to demand an obligation to achieve results on the part of families educating children outside school. If this were the case, there would be discrimination in violation of Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In its 2006 global report[4] the UN Special Rapporteur Katarina TomaševskiThe report stressed that governments are accountable for human rights violations. It noted that rich countries set the benchmarks and evaluate the performance of the poor, but do not monitor their own performance.

Did you know ? PISA: "91.3 % to 98.7% of 15-year-olds who have attended school in OECD countries are unable to read short, simple texts with some critical thinking". These are the findings of the PISA study. And we're only talking about reading, not writing. In fact, around 2/3 of pupils have mastered level 2 reading in the PISA test and have already been overtaken by artificial intelligence!

States that have signed up to the ICESCR, such as Luxembourg, which has ratified it, are obliged to set up and maintain a transparent and effective system for monitoring the implementation of the ICESCR. effective to ensure that education contributes to the full development of the human personality.

The obligation to respect the right to education requires States Parties to avoid taking any measures that may hinder or prevent the enjoyment of this right, in particular by seeking to impose unproven teaching methods and by failing to support alternative approaches. Governments that do not respect human rights are bad educators. Education must teach us that rebellion against all forms of oppression is an innate right.

[1] Education is a fundamental right and one of the keys to exercising the rights inherent in the human person. It is the main tool enabling adults and young people tos economically and socially marginalised people to escape poverty and acquire the means to participate fully in the life of their community.

[2] On this link you will also find an example of the European School's syllabus in several languages:
https://www.eursc.eu/fr/European-Schools/studies/syllabuses2023

[3] Source : https://men.public.lu/fr/actualites/communiques-conference-presse/2023/10/04-plan-etudes-ef.html

[4] http://katarinatomasevski.com/images/Global_Report.pdf Introduction p. XXV

Learning is not a linear process, and it is not the job of public officials to check that learning has been acquired, but to ensure that the educational environment does not hinder the acquisition of that learning.

By ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Luxembourg State is obliged to guarantee free choice of education, without interference from the State or third parties, provided that it conforms to "such minimum standards as may be laid down or approved by the State in matters of education" (art. 13, par. 3 and 4). However, the effectiveness of these standards is never really called into question.

Most of the time, assessments and tests are based on dogmatic criteria that are purely academic and therefore questionable. They are not necessarily adapted to the pedagogical approach of families and often fail to value the acquisition of skills that are not referenced in the syllabus and yet are in line with educational objectives.

Families need to learn how to highlight the progress they have made and present their practices in a way that reassures the most conservative directorates.

Despite this, state officials remain both judge and party, and families sometimes find themselves faced with what Edgar Morin might call the totalitarianism of a single party.

So, although parents' educational choices take precedence over those of the State, they are sometimes brushed aside in the banality of arbitrariness bordering on obscurantism. In response to specific questions about the appropriateness of the evaluation methods used, the Ministry of Education gives only evasive answers. In other words, if it fails to provide a real answer, it is content to adopt its arbitrary stance.

Families and young people are being held hostage by a state that has only an obligation of means and not of results, and shamelessly abuses its power with complete impunity. Indeed, as we mentioned in point 4, the justiciability of the right to education is not guaranteed in any way in the rule of law Luxembourg. Yet there is no shortage of legal arguments.

It is time to make a responsible effort as a citizen to bring these outrages before the highest courts, because above all the law, it is a question of our humanity as a community. The right to education can only be exercised if it is accompanied by academic freedom for both teachers and students, in both institutional and non-institutional settings, such as the home.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) states that secondary education must also meet the same criteria of availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability as primary education.

It is designed to complement elementary education and to strengthen the basis for lifelong learning and personal development. It prepares students for vocational and higher education. For these reasons, it requires flexible curricula and varied training systems..

So there is an official study plan at secondary level for different sections and subjects. What interests the authorities, in accordance with the law, is that :

The teaching practised enables students to acquire a general culture and prepares them for further studies and lifelong learning, as well as for the future. building their own lives and life in societythe professional and social life and exercising their rights and their responsibilities as citizens in a free democratic society...

But there are many ways of achieving this goal.

Fundamental :

Article 5(3) of the new law of 20 July 2023 on compulsory education (repealing article 10 of the previous law of 6 February 2009) stipulates that:

"Minors with special educational needs fulfil their compulsory schooling obligation by receiving an education adapted to their needs, as determined by the national inclusion committee or an inclusion committee.

However, the law of 6 February 2009 on the organisation of basic education is still in force, and the following article specifies that parents must be consulted and give their consent to the school being taken in charge:

Art. 29

At least one school inclusion committee which has the task of defining, either at the request of the parents or of the teacher and the parents provided that the parents have given their consentthe care of the pupils in question.

In other words, nobody can force you to sign up to the school inclusion committee. If you have signed it and regret it, human rights dictate that it should be possible to reverse the decision by challenging it, but we have no experience of this to share.

Secondary school :

The Ministry's secondary home education officers recently asked families to sign the form below:

This form reflects a very academic approach to teaching and is questionable. At the same time, it shows a certain flexibility with the possibility of developing a portfolio by ticking the second box.

In the spirit of human rights, checks and balances, and reciprocity, shouldn't representatives of the State also sign that they undertake to respect the law, or else what right do they have to force you to sign such a form?

According to art. 21 of the law of 6 February 2009 on the organisation of basic education:

"... Home teaching must be aimed at acquiring the basic skills defined in the curriculum. In duly justified circumstances, in particular - for example - if the parents intend to have their child receive child distance education, the borough director may grant an exemption from one or other of the subjects provided for in section 7 of the Education Act.

It is therefore possible to follow a curriculum other than the Luxembourg curriculum at the fundamental level, subject to the agreement of the director.

It should also be noted that "aiming for the acquisition of the basic skills defined in the curriculum" does not mean that it is compulsory to achieve them, but that children must be given the opportunity to achieve them, because they have a right to education, and no one can be forced to learn. Not all schoolchildren achieve these standards. However, the curriculum is relatively flexible in relation to the different rhythms of pupils, providing for a low, medium and high level. It represents a kind of skills reference framework.

Furthermore, there are serious empirical and scientific arguments against forcing certain learning or requiring the acquisition of certain skills at a given age. For example, if an individual cannot read at the age of 10 or 14, this in no way predicts their future reading skills. However, it would be unacceptable not to allow them to develop this skill.

However, advocates of independent learning sometimes have to argue their case and be well versed in the law in force to defend their educational position against the authorities.

* The term child is used here in the legal sense of "minor".

In practice, each family educates according to its own convictions and skills.

In general, parents are responsible for their children's education. child by adapting to the personality of their offspring, whom they normally know well. They follow alternative teaching methods or use everyday events as inspiration.

Quite often, but not necessarily, parents start by doing the following home schooling It all depends on how they see the young person. the "child"Their ability to let go of normative expectations and their philosophy of life or beliefs.

Some families delegate part or all of their children's education to external teachers, depending on their income, availability and skills.

Many parents opt for correspondence courses.
However, under the law of 6 February 2009 on the organisation of basic education and the law of 20 July 2023 on compulsory education, correspondence courses are not compulsory.

Home schooling at primary level is subject to supervision by the regional director. If it is found that the education provided does not meet the criteria defined by law, the pupil is automatically enrolled in the school in his or her commune of residence. The same applies if the director refuses to carry out the inspection.

In the end, everything will depend on the director's assessment, but everything is debatable, particularly from a legal and educational point of view, and ideally you need to be able to establish a good working relationship.

Inspections generally go well when everyone pulls their weight.

On reading Article 21, we therefore understand that correspondence courses in French or German are possible, insofar as most of the subjects in Article 7 on the skills to be developed are included.

For English speakers, some English courses may be accepted, depending on the particular situation of the family and the director.
Text of the law (Art. 7 page 86)

If the headteacher refuses a choice of correspondence courses or teaching aids, insofar as these courses respect the criteria of the law and in particular the purpose of the right to education, this will be debatable.

Indeed, the school's mission is to prepare students for the future.child and certain social values. It is in this context that the choice of curriculum must be assessed.

Below are some examples of correspondence courses:

In French :
CNED, Hattemer, Legendre, Valin, EAD (Belgium), Sainte-Anne, PI, Cours Académiques, KerLann, Clonlara in French...

In German :
Clonlara Schule , www.flex-fernschule.de, www.kern-bildung.de,
 www.web-individualschule.de , www.vhs.de, www.methodos-ev.org

In English :
Clonlara, West River Academy, ... since home schooling is very widespread in the United States, there are many online courses on offer.

In Luxembourg, e-learning opportunities have been set up at secondary level, see the website www.ecampus.lu

There is also a plethora of opportunities to learn or even test yourself on all sorts of subjects, both paid and free: tutorials, videos, games and online applications (Khan Academy, MOOCs, Duo lingo, Udemy...).
Artificial intelligence tools such as the pay-per-use version of GPT chat or Code Interpreter are also turning the educational landscape upside down.

Correspondence courses are often expensive, with the exception of the Belgian EAD, which does not issue a school-leaving certificate. The baccalauréat and other similar school-leaving qualifications can be taken on an unaccompanied basis.

Given that compulsory education will be extended to the age of 18 by 2026, the State will now have to provide validations enabling young people to enrol in higher education establishments and obtain professional diplomas.

Manychildren who have never attended school want to do so at some point, or for other reasons are forced to do so.
We are not aware of anychild for whom this posed a problem, both in terms of adapting to the school rhythm, and from the point of view of the skills of the "child"or even teenagers.

Given that compulsory education has been extended to 18 by 2026, the state is now obliged to allow young people to attend state schools until they are 18. If, however, we were to suggest that you place the children in a class lower than their age and level, you should know that you can lodge an appeal under article 23 of the law of 6 February 2009 on the organisation of basic education.

Art. 23

By decision of the teaching staff, a student who, after one year of teaching, has mastered the objectives defined for the end of the cycle may be admitted to the next cycle.

By decision of the teaching staff during the cycle, a student may spend an extra year in the cycle to enable him/her to achieve the objectives set for the end of the cycle.

If you disagree with the educational team's decisionparents have the right to lodge an appeal to the district inspector, who will give a ruling within one month.

Students taking an extra year in the cycle are taught in a way that avoids repeating activities they have already mastered. specially adapted to their learning needs.

As soon as the teaching team establishes that a pupil cannot achieve the end-of-cycle objectives within the maximum time allowed, he will benefit from the measures provided for in section 4 of this chapter (i.e. Art. 22 (4) support measures decided at the end of the cycle to be implemented in the following cycle according to the pupil's needsThe total duration of a pupil's stay in the three cycles corresponding to primary education may not exceed eight years.[1]

As far as secondary schools are concerned, this does not seem to be regulated by law, and it is a matter of reaching an agreement with the school headmaster concerned. We have not been informed of any particular problems in this respect.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which have been ratified by Luxembourg, suggest that young people should receive an education adapted to their abilities. If this were not the case, it would be questionable, at least from a legal point of view.

[1] https://data.legilux.public.lu/filestore/eli/etat/leg/trep/2014/09/04/n2/jo/fr/html/eli-etat-leg-trep-2014-09-04-n2-jo-fr-html.html#1-1-4-3-3-

Although there are always solutions for catching up on a course, they can be more time-consuming. So this is an important point that can be discussed with the ministry if necessary.

In France, for example, it is possible to sit the bac as an independent candidate.
Some young people often take the baccalauréat by returning to a lycée in the year of the diploma or earlier, in order to build up the academic record needed to gain entry to certain higher education establishments.

If you take correspondence courses that issue a certificate of attendance, the problem of validating skills will be avoided. Some teenagers therefore go to lycée in order to have an academic record that is required by certain schools after the baccalauréat, particularly in France, but let's bear in mind that in the end, what really counts is not so much diplomas as skills.

Some fee-paying organisations such as Clonlara.org or Kern-Bildung.de help children who have been taught informally to comply with school requirements or to prepare for the baccalauréat, for example.

In Luxembourg, just one example is the

e-learning  www.ecampus.lu for secondary schools and the following organisation is also aimed at children but we have no feedback on this: www.reussitschool.lu

You can also learn Luxembourgish online for free at this website www.llo.lu and much more here www.lifelong-learning.lu

These sites are not an exhaustive list. It's up to you to do your research and find the medium that suits you, whatever your age.
We can expect more and more similar tools to be developed for education.

Every parent generally wants the best for their child's future, and the question that often arises is whether the child will perform better academically if educated at home.

There is an important dogma to be deconstructed: the belief that individual teaching is more effective than group teaching. The researcher Alan Thomas from the Institute of Education at the University of London began his research into family teaching to study the effectiveness of individual teaching and he discovered all the richness of informal teaching (which does not prevent the use of formal tools that can be very useful).

It is also wrong to believe that one system or another will be better; it all depends on what you experience and how you experience it. It is essential to warn against abuse, whether in or out of school.

In Luxembourg, home schooling is monitored and there are remedies if the authorities fail to comply with basic laws.

So people need to be well informed about their rights and the remedies available to them, whether they are educated at home or in an institution, because even a well-intentioned government cannot guarantee that all its public servants will behave in an exemplary manner and in accordance with the ethical values of the law.

The debate about school or no school, free school or traditional school will never be over, because it's up to each individual to decide whether they prefer more formal or informal, more freedom or obligation, and to choose the way they want to learn according to their needs.

But it is important to ensure that education, whether it takes place at home or in a school, does not prevent individuals from developing their potential, whether in academic or other forms, which in no way means trying to turn them into little geniuses. The aim of education is fulfilment and development, and that's much more than academic achievement.

In Germany, the "Schulzwang" inherited from Hitler's youth movement is still in force. On the pretext of preventing the emergence of parallel societies, Germany and other countries are questioning the freedom of education in order to combat radicalism. However, these positions are debatable.

It is utopian to think that we can teach tolerance and democratic values in an authoritarian system that does not allow young people to participate in all the decisions that affect them.

As Swiss paediatrician Remo H. Largo points out in an article in German entitled "We already have children burn-out[1]From the biographies of the terrorists, we are beginning to see that it was a lack of security, a lack of established social status, a feeling of exclusion and a lack of self-determination that led them to join IS, where they finally feel they exist.

" ...You can see this in the increasingly well-known biographies of terrorists. They have not experienced security or sufficient social recognition, they have no fixed social status and feel marginalised. They feel completely determined by others. When they go to I.S., they are finally somebody. This is not even a new phenomenon, it was already observed in the seventeenth century during the Thirty Years' War. People were totally lost existentially, they had no permanent social position in the community and were also hungry and ill. So they went off to war.

Moreover, are there more parallel societies and radicalism in England than in Germany, even though in Germany not only is schooling not compulsory, but there is no compulsory curriculum? Finally, what proof is there that the school system as it exists prevents the emergence of parallel societies and radicalisation?

[1] https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wir-haben-jetzt-schon-kinder-mit-burn-out-336732491644

This question has arisen because some allophone families - i.e. those who do not speak any of the Grand Duchy's official languages - have not obtained authorisation not to send their children to school, as they could not pass on the Luxembourg language to their children. child still small. In relation to current school law, this is difficult to defend, as the derogation is granted by the head teacher giving the authorisation, unless it can be proved that it is not in the best interests of the child. the "child" (child traumatised at school).

Is it really worth getting involved in a legal battle to assert human rights? In fact, asserting one's right as a parent in a court of law is practically a lost cause in this context, and what lawyer would be prepared to defend a child as a subject of human rights? What judge would be open enough to recognise this freedom of choice? In our society, it is rare that the opinion of children as a subject is taken seriously, even less so when they are very young.

Nor can anyone prove that it is not in the interests of these children's social integration to attend school so that they can easily learn Lëtzebuergesch, when this is not possible within the family or elsewhere. However, for some families, these refusals and the consequences they have entailed have been rather unpleasant and have ultimately encouraged them to flee.

The proportion of foreigners living in Luxembourg stood at 47.4% on 1 January 2023. In 1961, the proportion of foreigners was only 13.2%. Around 180 nationalities were represented on 8 November 2021. It is hardly surprising that language teaching occupies a central place in the Luxembourg education system. That's why the range of courses on offer has been adapted to include non-Luxembourgish courses, and the trend is towards greater flexibility for Luxembourg speakers too.

It has to be said that foreign children living in a country can, in spite of everything, naturally learn the usual languages of that country, provided that they have sufficient contact with those languages. The best form of inclusion is the creation of living spaces in a caring environment that sets an example to be followed, rather than on the basis of injunctions such as "Do as I say, not as I do".

* The term child is used here in the legal sense of "minor".

According to a Ministerial Question in 2011, there were around 20 of them at the time, 18 more precisely in 2011/2012 according to an article in the daily Wort of 16.11.2016 and 70 in 2016/2017 compared with 50 in January 2016, i.e. around 1 child per thousand in basic education.

Below are the latest figures shared by the Ministry of Education on 25.07.2024 during a session in the Chamber of Deputies:

By way of comparison, in the USA, the country with the highest number of 'non-scos', this figure is around 2 million, or more than 3 % of the US school population.

In Luxembourg, as in other countries, the trend is towards growth, but this choice remains very marginal. Few parents want or feel able to take responsibility for their child's education.

As an association for freedom of education, we are not seeking to proselytise for home schooling. What matters to us is that every parent should be able to offer their child access to an education that respects fundamental rights and ethical values.

Is the Grand Duchy not capable of reforming a school system that is "too vertical, too uniform and too rigid"? It's not a question of spending more, but of rethinking everything. School should be a haven of peace where it's good to live together.

* The term child is used here in the legal sense of "minor".

The essential point is made in this Wikipedia article 

A common fear - more common among the general public than among homeschooling parents - is the potential isolation suffered by children deprived of contact with other schoolchildren. Associations promoting home schooling all mention the subject on their websites. Many parents shun this very "socialisation" involving conformism, social pressure from other schoolchildren, bullying and violence.  bad influences.

For most supporters of home schooling, their choice actually improves their children's social development. Indeed, for them, the years spent in an institution are the only ones during which schoolchildren will be artificially separated into cloistered groups of the same age (out of economic efficiency rather than concern for quality). These advocates claim that children educated at home experience healthier and more natural socialisation, as they interact more with people of all ages. This leads to more influence from adults and less from other children, producing more mature young citizens.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, a number of studies, often funded by organisations promoting home schooling, have attempted to assess the impact of home schooling on children's "sociability". The results are generally extremely positive (studies by Larry Shynes & alt.).

Some authors, such as Robert Epstein, former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, believe that the extension of compulsory schooling and the fact that teenagers are 'parked' among themselves infantilise them, whereas personalised teaching in closer contact with adults, such as home schooling, enables them to mature more quickly and avoid the crisis of adolescence. This crisis is largely a consequence of the long period of compulsory schooling, during which teenagers are treated like children and have only other teenagers as role models and companions.

In her recent book "L'école à la maison au Québec : Un projet familial, social et démocratique", published by Broché, researcher Christine Brabant also takes an impartial look at numerous studies on the subject.

According to the independent study by Robert Kunzmann of Indiana University and Milton Gaither Messiah College, 2013, updated in 2020[1]In fact, there is no evidence to suggest that this is the case.

[1] https://icher.org/files/Kunzman_and_Gaither_An%20Updated_Comprehensive_Survey.pdf

Regular activities take place between non-school-going families.
You are welcome to meet them and talk to them to help you decide whether or not to drop out of school, and to make new acquaintances.

Send an email to alli.connect@outlook.com to get in touch.

A signal group for teenagers also exists, and the contact person is janicehammersmith@gmail.com.

You can also ask questions and send private messages to our group Facebook " Home Education in Luxembourg "
https://www.facebook.com/groups/248275408672476.

The general contact for the association is alliasbl@gmail.com.