Parents and teachers only disagreed 0.3% of the time on whether students were fit to progress to secondary school. Photo: Bermix Studio / Shutterstock

Parents and teachers only disagreed 0.3% of the time on whether students were fit to progress to secondary school. Photo: Bermix Studio / Shutterstock

At the end of the 2020/21 school year, 5,382 out of 5,411 primary school pupils were referred to begin secondary school education. Parent and teacher agreement on these decisions remained very high at 99.7%.

Several pathways are available for primary school pupils in Luxembourg to pursue secondary school education depending on a number of factors. At the end of the 2020/21 school year, 5,382 out of 5,411 primary school pupils were referred to move on to secondary school level, while the remaining 29 students will benefit from an extended stay in cycle 4 before moving up.

The graduation rate to the classical secondary school system (7C) stood at 39.9%, a stable percentage compared to previous years. The repetition rate was 0.5%, compared to 1.3% in the 2010/11 school year.

The final decision for secondary school education involves procedures that often require regular exchanges between teachers and parents with a joint decision taken thereafter. The agreement rate between parents and teachers remained very high at 99.7% in the 2020/21 school year, as in previous years (99.2% in 2018/19 and 99.8% in 2019/20). In the event of disagreement, an orientation committee makes the final decision. This was necessary for 17 pupils, for whom the committee mostly endorsed the opinion of the teachers except in one case.

The first discussion about a child’s prospects takes place at the end of cycle 4.1. At the end of cycle 4.2, parents and teachers make a joint decision on the student’s orientation. This decision considers the pupil’s production level during cycle 4, including results in national standardised tests organised by the education ministry, as well as a psychologist’s opinion if the parents opt for it. 

This year, 5,061 out of 5,411 students (93.5%) moved up following the normal procedures that apply to students in cycle 4, and largely requiring the participation of the pupil’s parents. 350 (6.5%) out of the 5,411 pupils were referred before the regular end of the school year. Of these pupils, 44 came from cycle 3.2; 53 from an extended period in cycle 3; and 253 from cycle 4.1.

The standardised tests of cycle 4.2 were organised as scheduled in March 2021 despite the pandemic, and pupils who were ill or quarantined on one or more test days were allowed to graduate based on the pupil’s overall production in cycle 4, result assessments, and a psychologist’s opinion.

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