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Image illustrating: Parents and pupils outside a secondary school entrance in central Liège during a (editorial)
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Liège Education

Why are families protesting a new school charge in Liège?

A dispute at Collège Sainte-Véronique in Liège has become a practical test of Belgium's French Community rules on school costs. French-language reports say around 100 people demonstrated against a new minerval, while DH reported that the direction Sainte-Véronique suspended classes again amid the conflict. For Belgium-based families, including expats navigating the French-language school system, the key question is not only whether a school can ask for money, but what kind of fee is legally allowed, how it must be explained, and what remedies parents have.

Belgium Impulse Editorial·24 June 2026·2 min read·5 sources
Key signal

For parents and pupils, this is a service issue with legal consequences. If a requested payment is genuinely for identifiable costs such as swimming, cultural or sports activities, photocopies, book loans, tools, equipment, school trips or voluntary digital equipment, it may be allowed under strict conditions. If it functions as a blanket access charge, families may have grounds to challenge it. The case also matters beyond Liège because private and Catholic subsidised schools in Wallonia and Brussels operate with autonomy, but within the same French Community framework on free access, transparency and sanctions for unlawful fees.

The subject is Collège Sainte-Véronique, a Catholic secondary school in central Liège, run by the ASBL Groupe Sainte-Véronique and located on rue Rennequin Sualem. The immediate dispute concerns a newly contested school charge described in French-language coverage as a minerval. In Belgium's French Community, compulsory education is regulated by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, with Valérie Glatigny as education minister in the Degryse government. Schools may invoice certain real-cost items, but the Code de l'enseignement reproduced in Sainte-Véronique's own rules states that no direct or indirect tuition fee may be charged in nursery, primary or secondary education, subject to narrow exceptions.

Background

Belgium's school system is built on a long compromise between freedom of education, parental choice and public regulation. The School Pact tradition protected the coexistence of official and free networks, while later community reforms made education largely a competence of the language communities. In the French Community, the modern Code de l'enseignement attempts to reconcile school autonomy with the constitutional principle that access to compulsory education is free. That tension is visible whenever a school presents a new contribution as necessary for its educational project and families experience it as a barrier to access.

OIS Intelligence

Impact

Regional — The impact is strongest in Liège, where pupils, parents, teachers and the school's management face disruption before the end of the school year. It also resonates across Wallonia and French-speaking Brussels because many families choose between official schools and subsidised free schools, including Catholic schools, while relying on the same public rules on school costs.

Opposing perspectives

  1. Parents and pupil protesters

    Families opposing the new minerval frame the issue as access and fairness. Their Belgian framing is stronger than a generic 'school fee row': in compulsory education, they can point to the French Community rule that schools cannot impose a direct or indirect tuition fee. Their practical concern is whether a requested contribution becomes a condition for belonging to the school community, especially for households already managing transport, meals, materials and activity costs.

  2. Sainte-Véronique management and organising authority

    The school side is likely to frame the dispute around autonomy, educational projects and real operating costs. Its own rules say the Groupe Sainte-Véronique organises many activities and provides a solidarity mechanism for families in difficulty. The reported phrase that a school cannot decide its choices democratically reflects a management view that consultation does not mean every operational or financial decision becomes a family vote.

  3. Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles regulator

    The institutional perspective is not about whether a Catholic or private subsidised school may have its own identity; Belgium explicitly protects freedom of education. The regulator's frame is whether the fee respects the Code de l'enseignement: authorised costs must be itemised, linked to specific services and transparent. The French Community can sanction breaches, including warnings, fines and in repeat cases consequences for subsidies.

  4. European education policy context

    EU institutions do not set Belgian school-fee rules, but their framing differs from Anglo-wire-style consumer language. The European Commission's Pathways to School Success approach treats school costs as part of equity and inclusion: education systems should give all learners a chance to fulfil their potential regardless of socio-economic background. That makes the Liège dispute part of a wider European concern over hidden barriers to schooling.

Sources & evidence