the Belgian minister calls for sanctions for academics who turn a blind eye

University support movements for the pro-Palestinian cause took a surprising turn in Belgium this Tuesday. The Belgian press reported the desire of certain teachers not to denounce students caught cheating during the exams which begin on Monday.

In a letter released on Monday, the signatories pointed out the links maintained by Belgian universities “with Israeli institutions despite human rights violations, war crimes and violations of international law by the Israeli regime. and the absence of a clear position “in favor of the Palestinian situation”. “This does not mean we condone cheating, but it will have no consequences for us,” they hammered.

“A call for fraud”

This Wednesday morning, the Minister of Higher Education Françoise Bertieaux spoke in La Libre Belgique to say “deeply scandalized” of this behavior which takes “holding students’ success path hostage in the name of personal opinions”. She asks universities to take possible sanctions against these teachers, affirming that the teachers concerned cannot use or import “this conflict in our higher education establishments”.

“Their call for cheating amounts to a call for fraud, which is contrary to the rules of life in society, recalls the minister. Teachers completely miss their educational missions, by imposing their personal opinions as the only valid ones to be heard (…), they flout one of the great missions of our higher education: openness to critical thinking and pluralism.” Françoise Bertieaux also believes that this action would add “from stress to stress for all these students”.

Our colleagues from The Free specify that this “surveillance strike” would mainly affect Dutch-speaking universities.