Presentation of the white paper on the new fundamental education curriculum

The presentation was followed by a round-table discussion with key players from the education sector: Dany Semedo, President of the Executive Board of the National Pupils' Conference (CNEL), Alain Massen, President of the National Parents' Association, Vanessa Schetgen, teacher and Vice-President of the National Teachers' Union (SNE), and Philippe Kloos, Director of Fundamental Education at Sanem.

Adapting the curriculum to the skills required in the 21st century

For each of the areas of development and learning, the fundamental education curriculum sets out the skills base that pupils should be able to achieve by the end of each learning cycle, the skills to be developed, examples of performance and recommendations for content, as well as the annual number of lessons to be spread across all the areas in question. The current version dates from 2009. In order to modernise it, diversify it and adapt it to the demands of society and the interests of pupils, a collaborative consultation process has been set up with stakeholders from 2021 onwards.

An extensive consultation process

The consultation process involved more than 1,200 school stakeholders, including directors of fundamental and secondary education, chairmen of school councils, formal and non-formal education professionals, parents and pupils. More than 6,000 suggestions were collected, and the white paper summarises them and provides a basis for implementing the new syllabus, which is due to come into force at the start of the 2026/2027 school year.

"The new curriculum for fundamental education is an ambitious project that defines the broad outlines for the school of the future. It should serve as a guide for passing on knowledge, skills and qualifications to our children so that they can find their place in our society. This White Paper is the result of a wide-ranging consultation process with all the players in the education system, and I welcome the commitment of each and every one of them in the interests of strong children with a future", emphasised Minister Claude Meisch.

Four pillars for the new curriculum

The new curriculum is based on four thematic pillars:

• the well-being of students (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),
• 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).

Press release by the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth