The number of female IT specialists, scientists and engineers remains low. The Itinera Institute offers a platform to Carl Van Keirsbilck, who studied the causes, and formulates clear recommendations towards government and education.

 

Our education system needs to focus on gaining skills, not on every pupil achieving a certain level of skills. Minimal standards do make sense, but we need to be aware that a certain group has already got the required level in the beginning of the school year.

Hindriks and Verschelde review the possible reasons for the regional divergence in educational attainments. They suggest that the gap between Flemish and French-speaking pupils can be compared to the difference between girls and boys in learning attitudes and motivations.

Belgium not only has to cut its deficit but also needs budget surpluses to consolidate public debt. It’s important not to be blinded by cyclical improvements as they will be dwarfed by new costs due to ageing.

The Belgian housing prices have increased by one third since 2005. Structural factors can partly explain this price explosion. The difference between the yearly increase in the demand for houses and the yearly increase in the supply of new houses is central to this analysis.

While the rest of Europe awakens to put order into their public finances and to prepare the pension shock, Belgium goes back to bed with its institutional problems. But the problem needs to be addressed now.

Marc De Vos sees how all political parties acknowledge the necessity of working longer while the reality on the labour market does not follow, notwithstanding the Generation Pact. The crisis has again put older workers in the firing line.