A proposal to ban teachers in public education from wearing religious symbols will be tabled in June by the Education Minister of the French Community Government, Valérie Glatigny (MR). She revealed the information to La Première on Friday.
The debate over religious and philosophical symbols in schools has been raised in recent weeks in several Brussels municipalities.
Team Fouad Ahidar has proposed allowing religious symbols in certain municipal schools, citing discrimination against Muslim teachers who wear headscarves and a shortage of teachers.
However, Glatigny sees this as a "step backwards in the neutrality of education" and plans to submit a proposal to the French Community Government in June to ban the wearing of religious symbols by teachers in the official school system.
"The aim is for this ban to come into force at the start of the 2026 school year," she said. Even if the minister wants to go "as far as possible", such a ban would not apply to the independent network, where schools have more freedom in this area.
Glatigny was speaking on La Première during a "green retreat" organised on Friday and Saturday with school stakeholders. The aim was to take stock of the reforms carried out in the sector, ten years after the launch of the Pact for Excellence in Education.
The socialist (CGSP and SETCa-SEL) and Christian (CSC) trade unions announced that they would boycott the event, denouncing the "harmful" reforms in the pipeline and the Francophone liberal party MR's "unequal" vision of education.
