Interview with Johan Surkyn in the Randkrant

A school infrastructure capacity monitor has been developed by researchers at KU Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven) and the VUB (Free University of Brussels). This instrument is designed to evaluate the primary and secondary school place supply and demand situation in each municipality up until the year 2030. Steven Groenez, the head of research at the KU Leuven Higher Institute for Labour Studies (HIVA), says: ‘The demand for primary school places is on the rise in very many Rand municipalities. The number of primary school pupils is forecast to rise in Wezembeek-Oppem, Merchtem, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Zaventem, Meise, Asse, Grimbergen and Vilvoorde over the 2012- 2013 to 2020-2021 period. There is also expected to be a shortage of places in Zaventem, Wezembeek-Oppem, Vilvoorde, Meise, Grimbergen, as well Halle in 2020-2021.’ Detailed figures are now being calculated for each municipality but have not yet been published. The 35 highest climbers in the secondary education sector include seven Rand municipalities: Zaventem, Asse, Grimbergen, Tervuren, Vilvoorde, Wemmel and Merchtem.

Read the complete interview about the projected number of school places in the Flemish periphery around Brussels here (in Dutch).