More children at boarding schools

28 August 2007

BRUSSELS – Boarding schools are becoming more popular. Both Catholic and public boarding schools will welcome more students than last year come 1 September. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of children coming from single parent households.

After three decades of waning numbers, the Flemish boarding schools have been seeing enrolment numbers grow more and more each year since 2002. Last school year, 8,171 students were attending private boarding schools in Flanders. “On 1 September it will probably be quite a bit more, according to the initial figures,” says Jan Willems, director of the Boarding School department at the Flemish secretariat for Catholic education.

Public boarding schools are also expecting an increase in enrolment. Concrete figures will not be available until Monday, when both networks organise a rapid count.

What is already known is that the number of children from single parent homes attending these schools is growing steadily. “We see this trend especially in primary education. Working and caring for small children is sometimes difficult for single mothers to combine.”

Subject: Belgian news