History
In the past there were conflicts between state schools and catholic schools, and disputes whether the latter should be funded by the government. The 1958 School Pact was an agreement of the three large political parties to end these conflicts.
The 1981 state reform transferred some matters from the federal Belgian level to the communities. A few years later, in 1988, the majority of educational matters was transferred. Nowadays, very few general matters are regulated on a national level. The current ministries for education are the Flemish Government, the Government of the French Community and the Government of the German-speaking Community for each community respectively. Brussels, being bilingual French-Dutch, has both schools provided by the Flemish and French-speaking community. Municipalities with language facilities often have schools of two communities (Dutch-French or German-French) as well.
Read more about this topic: Education In Belgium
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