A Look at Luxembourg's Education System: Pre-School & Primary Education

With schools resuming classes after the summer break, Chronicle.lu has prepared a short series of articles about education in Luxembourg.

First up is a look at pre-school and primary education.

Schooling is compulsory in Luxembourg for children aged four to sixteen (set to rise to eighteen from 2026). The Grand Duchy is home to various public and private schools with a multilingual education offer that reflects the country's increasingly multicultural population.

Pre-School 

In the Luxembourgish public school system, pre-primary education starts with cycle 1 (three- to five-year-olds). Parents can voluntarily send their three- to four-year-olds to "précoce" before four- to five-year-old children start compulsory preschool education, also known as "Spillschoul" (play school). Cycle 1 typically focuses on Luxembourgish and French.

Children may also attend private pre-schools, such as Scuola Materna Cattolica Internazionale or the independent method schools Sunflower Montessori (in English), École Maria Montessori, Luxembourg Waldorf School (Fräi-ëffentlech Waldorfschoul) and École Montessori Schule (Hobscheid).

The Luxembourg government also offers a childcare service voucher scheme ("cheques-service accueil") which resident and cross-border working parents can use to pay for childcare in kind for children up to the age of twelve. In this way, the government partially pays for childcare costs in nurseries, "maisons relais" (childcare centres) and day-care centres or for parental assistants.

Primary

Luxembourgish (public) primary education (Cycles 2 to 4) is intended for children aged six to eleven, with each cycle lasting two years. Cycles 2 to 4 are mainly taught in German, although children begin learning French already in Cycle 2. A pilot project launched at the start of the 2022 academic year offered pupils in four Luxembourgish primary schools the opportunity to learn to read and write in French instead of German - the initiative may be expanded in future.

As of 1 September 2023, Luxembourg counted 165 elementary (primary) state schools spread across 100 municipalities. A few of these schools use alternative teaching methods, for example Eis Schoul in Luxembourg-Kirchberg, Jean-Jaurès in Esch-sur-Alzette and Geenzepark in Wiltz.

Moreover, six public international schools offer primary level education (following the European school system, all with English-language streams): École Internationale de Differdange & Esch-sur-Alzette (EIDE); Lënster Lycée International School (LLIS) in Junglinster; École Internationale Mondorf-les-Bains (EIMLB); École Internationale Edward Steichen in Clervaux (LESC); École Internationale Mersch Anne Beffort (EIMAB); École Internationale Gaston Thorn in Luxembourg-Merl (EIGT). The Lycée-International School Michel Lucius (LML) also offers an international primary school education (following the Cambridge Primary curriculum, in English).

Parents can alternatively opt to send their children to private primary schools (often also offering pre-school education), such as: International School of Luxembourg (ISL, in English); St George's International School Luxembourg (in English); École Privée Notre-Dame Sainte-Sophie (French and Luxembourgish curricula); École Charlemagne; Vauban, École et Lycée Français de Luxembourg; École Maria Montessori; Luxembourg Waldorf School; Over The Rainbow (ORT) International School; École Montessori Schule. The two European schools (ESL1 in Luxembourg-Kirchberg and ESL2 in Mamer) also offer primary (and pre-school) classes with multiple language sections, including English, but places are reserved predominately for children of EU Institutions' staff.