Page 73 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Contemporary European Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 73
the esl situation in luxembourg
education system, with various measures at either national or local level be-
ing articulated to prevent or remedy ESL.
The aim of this article is to describe the current situation and re-
cent trends concerning ESL in Luxembourg. First, some characteristics of
Luxembourg’s education system relevant to ESL are presented (i.e. transi-
tions, length of compulsory education, grade retention), including certain
pertinent recent reforms. Second, statistics on ESL in Luxembourg are pro-
vided along with, third, an insight into some ESL-related measures and
policies with a focus on multi-professional collaboration relating to ESL.
The purpose is to elucidate the context in which experiments within the
TITA project take place, thus guiding the interpretation and generalisa-
tions of the findings.
Methodology
The findings outlined in this article are based on information drawn from
European documents (European Commission, Eurydice), Eurostat, minis-
terial documents on ESL, and other documents and reports available on-
line. A search for scientific articles using the key words “early school leav-
ing”, “drop-out” and “Luxembourg” using the Arizona State University
Libraries search engine resulted in only two relevant articles. This lack of
international scientific publications and findings pertaining to the ESL top-
ic in Luxembourg indicates it has not received much research attention;
thus, for this article’s purposes we mostly relied on the documents listed
above. A search was also conducted using the backward procedure.
Some relevant characteristics of Luxembourg’s education
system
Due to its relatively small territory and geographical location, Luxembourg’s
demographic situation is characterised by a multinational population and
workforce as well as a multilingual environment. Naturally, this holds
implications for the education system (Eurydice, n.d.). For example, in
2004/2005, pupils speaking Luxembourgish at home made up the major-
ity, but by 2012/2013 the situation had reversed: just 40% of pupils speak
Luxembourgish as a first language at home (MENJE, 2014). Moreover, over
30% of students in primary education do not speak any of the three official
languages – French, German or Luxembourgish (neither as the first language
spoken, nor the second language spoken; ibid.). This trilingual tradition is
73
education system, with various measures at either national or local level be-
ing articulated to prevent or remedy ESL.
The aim of this article is to describe the current situation and re-
cent trends concerning ESL in Luxembourg. First, some characteristics of
Luxembourg’s education system relevant to ESL are presented (i.e. transi-
tions, length of compulsory education, grade retention), including certain
pertinent recent reforms. Second, statistics on ESL in Luxembourg are pro-
vided along with, third, an insight into some ESL-related measures and
policies with a focus on multi-professional collaboration relating to ESL.
The purpose is to elucidate the context in which experiments within the
TITA project take place, thus guiding the interpretation and generalisa-
tions of the findings.
Methodology
The findings outlined in this article are based on information drawn from
European documents (European Commission, Eurydice), Eurostat, minis-
terial documents on ESL, and other documents and reports available on-
line. A search for scientific articles using the key words “early school leav-
ing”, “drop-out” and “Luxembourg” using the Arizona State University
Libraries search engine resulted in only two relevant articles. This lack of
international scientific publications and findings pertaining to the ESL top-
ic in Luxembourg indicates it has not received much research attention;
thus, for this article’s purposes we mostly relied on the documents listed
above. A search was also conducted using the backward procedure.
Some relevant characteristics of Luxembourg’s education
system
Due to its relatively small territory and geographical location, Luxembourg’s
demographic situation is characterised by a multinational population and
workforce as well as a multilingual environment. Naturally, this holds
implications for the education system (Eurydice, n.d.). For example, in
2004/2005, pupils speaking Luxembourgish at home made up the major-
ity, but by 2012/2013 the situation had reversed: just 40% of pupils speak
Luxembourgish as a first language at home (MENJE, 2014). Moreover, over
30% of students in primary education do not speak any of the three official
languages – French, German or Luxembourgish (neither as the first language
spoken, nor the second language spoken; ibid.). This trilingual tradition is
73
