College Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ten-Doorn (COLTD) in Eeklo
Our school is quite a big school with about 2800 pupils and has a long tradition of 180 years. There is a nursery school, a primary school and (officially) 4 secondary schools, ranging from general education to technical and vocational education.
The school is situated in Eeklo, in a fairly rural and socially deprived region of Flanders (North of Belgium) with an older population and very few industry. So unemployment is higher here than elsewhere in Flanders and young people prefer to leave the region and live in bigger cities like Ghent or Antwerp. Our school is also supplied with special grants to ensure equal opportunities for all students, also the socially deprived ones. This support is very much needed since 8 years ago a centre for political refugees was started in Eeklo, next to our school, and brought many children from all different backgrounds to Eeklo. Most of them get education at our school and special programs have been set up to teach them Dutch and to introduce them in our society.
The confrontation with those people from all over the world with different cultural backgrounds caused for many local people a cultural shock and made it difficult to accept them in our community. European programs like this Comenius program are a very good tool to broaden the minds of our students and to prepare them to live with and accept other people with different habits and views.
The school is situated in Eeklo, in a fairly rural and socially deprived region of Flanders (North of Belgium) with an older population and very few industry. So unemployment is higher here than elsewhere in Flanders and young people prefer to leave the region and live in bigger cities like Ghent or Antwerp. Our school is also supplied with special grants to ensure equal opportunities for all students, also the socially deprived ones. This support is very much needed since 8 years ago a centre for political refugees was started in Eeklo, next to our school, and brought many children from all different backgrounds to Eeklo. Most of them get education at our school and special programs have been set up to teach them Dutch and to introduce them in our society.
The confrontation with those people from all over the world with different cultural backgrounds caused for many local people a cultural shock and made it difficult to accept them in our community. European programs like this Comenius program are a very good tool to broaden the minds of our students and to prepare them to live with and accept other people with different habits and views.