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.
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About this story
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.
How to read this story
The history
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.
Regional impact
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.
Local impact
In Liège, the dispute disrupts classes and trust between families and management at a prominent city-centre school. It may also affect enrolment decisions for parents comparing Catholic, official and other subsidised schools for 2026-2027.
International angle
The international angle is limited but real for expat and EU staff families in Belgium, who may be unfamiliar with the French-language distinction between prohibited minerval and authorised school costs. EU education policy also frames affordability as part of equity, though it does not decide Belgian school-fee law.
What this means for you
Parents should not rely on the label alone. Ask: Is this compulsory? What service does it cover? Is it charged at real cost? Is it in the written estimate? Can it be paid in instalments? What happens if we do not pay? For school leaders, the lesson is equally concrete: itemise, explain the legal basis, separate optional from compulsory costs and keep pupils out of payment disputes.
Opposing perspectives
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
How this story developed
2 reports on this subject — earliest first. You are reading the highlighted entry.
- Liège parents secure removal of strike pickets at Sainte-Véronique school
- Why are families protesting a new school charge in Liège?· You are here
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This briefing was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by a Belgium Impulse editor before publication. methodology.