Leuven University is joining forces with the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology, the VIB, and the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) to set up a private primary school where lessons will be taught in English.
The new school hopes to provide education for the children of foreign students, researchers and other staff, who are living in Belgium temporarily.
The new primary school should start in September 2014.
An estimated 10,000 foreigners study, work and live in Leuven, the capital of Flemish Brabant province. The people behind this initiative hope that it will go some way to providing affordable schooling in English for primary school children. The school should also help the university and the research centres to attract and keep international staff.
Mohammed Ridouani (socialist), the city cabinet member for education ,and Lalynn Wadera, the President of Leuven’s education commission, say that it’s thanks to the many foreign researchers who come to Leuven from across the globe in order to share their expertise that the city is becoming an ever more important knowledge centre.
Where exactly the school will be located is not yet clear.
