The Chamber of Commerce has delivered its opinion on draft Law No. 7074 on the reform of secondary and technical secondary education, calling for a profound structural overhaul of the classic secondary and technical education system.
In its opinion, the Chamber highlighted progress in a number of areas, such as strengthening the autonomy of secondary schools, more flexible learning of languages and mathematics, a new section on "Informatics and Communication”, and the introduction of new tools for the supervision of pupils with special and specific educational needs.
However, it doubted that the multiple measures advocated by the drafters of the law could permanently counteract what it called near-recurrent weaknesses, including the mixed results of national and international assessment tests, the apprenticeship system for languages that are still too rigid, too timid a preparation in the digital world, and high drop-out rates.
The Chamber said that it advocates a profound structural overhaul, even a flattening of the classical and technical secondary education, which is part of an ambitious participative approach aiming to make Luxembourg a centre of teaching excellence, unencumbered by the past, innovative, open and able to prepare all students for the challenges of the 21st century.
For this, the Chamber identified four levers, namely a genuine strategy for reform of the education system, rather than an ad hoc patchwork of initiatives, a global view linked to the world of work while encouraging the development of autonomous and responsible behaviour among young people, a proper system of evaluation and follow-up, and a special emphasis on adoption of a more flexible approach to language teaching.
The opinion concludes, “Although the draft law proposes some improvements, the Chamber of Commerce believes that the reform should go further to the implementation of a system of language teaching at several levels of education, for all levels of education. The quality of the education system largely determines societal progress and the contribution of one hand The Chamber of Commerce wishes to make a valuable contribution to the reform process of secondary education in Luxembourg.”
