NVAO policy advice on quality enhancement in teacher‑education programmes09/03/2026
On Friday 6 March, the Flemish Government approved, on the proposal of the Flemish Minister of Education, Zuhal Demir, a concept note on the reform of teacher‑education programmes. The minister based her decisions in part on the NVAO report “Study and policy advice on quality enhancement in teacher education”, which the NVAO presented to the minister on 1 December 2025.
The report is based on input from experts and contains explicit policy recommendations aimed at structurally strengthening the quality of the educational bachelor programmes for early childhood and primary education in Flanders. The NVAO presents three crucial levers:
- a focus on a core curriculum, underpinned by consensus-based research, in which student teachers acquire specific initial competences in subject knowledge, didactics, and the pedagogical relationship, including strong classroom management;
- structural and sustainable partnerships between teacher‑education programmes and primary schools that ensure strong coherence between what a student learns at the institution and in the practice school, and that guarantee effective supervision and clear, fair assessment for every student;
- external quality assessment by the NVAO of the reformed early‑years and primary‑education programmes, based on the new quality requirements.
According to the NVAO, this solid foundation in initial teacher education must seamlessly connect to an induction phase with workplace-based support, aimed at the acquisition of full professional competences.
