Summary:
STEM participation in Flemish secondary schools fell for the fourth consecutive year, reaching its lowest level in ten years. Last school year 35.5% of pupils chose a STEM track, down from 36.44% the year before and below the government target of over 40% by 2030. The decline continues despite more than a decade of intensive promotion. Employers’ group Voka warns this hurts capacity for addressing major challenges like climate and digitalisation — six of ten shortage occupations are STEM roles, Voka chair Frank Beckx says. Ann Caluwaerts (Imec, STEM platform) calls the trend “a time bomb under our prosperity.”
Makes sense: for the individual there’s little to no benefit of studying a harder STEM degree. The effort required and resulting quality of life is so much better just getting a government desk job. Belgium’s tax structure makes it so that the extra work and effort isn’t financially rewarding neither.
So the smart student better stays away from STEM untill the incentives change 👍