Belgian primary-school exams, explained for English-speaking parents
Which system is my child in?
If the school belongs to the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (French-language, including most schools in Wallonia and many in Brussels), your child will sit the CEB. If it is a Flemish or Dutch-language Brussels school (GO!, Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen, stedelijk/gemeentelijk onderwijs), your child takes the Vlaamse toetsen. The school’s letters and platform (Smartschool, Bingel, Konecto) tell you which.
The CEB in one page
Certificat d’études de base. Ten booklets over four mornings in June covering French (reading, writing, listening), maths (numbers without a calculator, measurement, geometry, data), science, and history-geography. The certificate is required to enter the standard first year of secondary (1re commune). New from June 2027: 50 % in each of the four disciplines plus a 60 % overall average. If a child fails, the school’s class council can still award the certificate on the basis of the year’s work, and an appeal is possible.
The Vlaamse toetsen in one page
Flemish central tests in Dutch reading comprehension and maths, taken on a computer, adaptive (questions get harder or easier with each answer). They are not an exam: no pass mark, no certificate attached. The school receives the results as extra information for the class council and the advice about secondary school. Your child gets an individual report which the school discusses with you.
What is actually hard for 6th-year pupils?
In both systems the data point the same way: maths problem-solving. The 2026 CEB maths average was 70.8 %, the lowest of the four disciplines, with unit conversions, order of operations and multi-step word problems costing the most points. In Flanders only 29 % of 6th-year pupils reached the standard for word problems in 2026. Reading comprehension is the second area to watch.
How to help when your French or Dutch isn’t up to it
You don’t need to teach the maths — you need to see where it goes wrong and make sure the explanation gets read. Ten to fifteen minutes a day of practice in the school language, with the explanation in that same language (that is the vocabulary of the exam), and a dashboard in English so you can follow. Ask the teacher for the mock exam date (« CEB blanc », usually March–April) and use it as a checkpoint, not a verdict.
Reading the report card
Belgian bulletins grade per competence, not per test. « TB / B / S / F / I » or « A / B / C / D » scales vary by school; ask for the seuil de réussite (pass threshold) the school uses. In Flanders, look for the results per leerdomein (learning domain) on the Vlaamse toetsen report rather than a single score.