The secondary education begins at the age of 12 and lasts for six years.
There are four kinds of secondary schools:
- grammar schools called "collèges" or "athenaeums",
- technical schools,
- professional schools,
- schools of art.

Besides these "ordinary" schools, there are specialised schools for disabled children. A law passed in Parliament in 1970 governs the organisation of the specialised education.
About 3 percent of all students attend special schools. Unfortunately, teachers who want to work in such schools do not get a special training. Nevertheless they have the opportunity to follow specific formations and attend skill upgrading or retraining courses during their career.
One of the advantages of the special school is the limited number of students in each class: 7 or 8.
According to their handicap, the children are classified into 8 categories or "types":
Type n° 1 children with mild mental handicap,
Type n° 2 children with severe mental disabilities,
Type n° 3 children with behavioural problems (e.g. autistic children belong to this category),
Type n° 4 children with physical handicap,
Type n° 5 children, suffering from diseases, which prevent them from attending an ordinary school,
Type n° 6 children with impaired sight,
Type n° 7 children with impaired hearing,
Type n° 8 children with learning disabilities (e.g. dyslexia). This type only exists in primary schools.

To be allowed to attend a special school, children must take medical and/ or psychological examinations in a psycho-medico-social centre.
In special secondary schools, there are four different curricula called "formes d'enseignement". Each curriculum lasts six school years and is adapted to the handicap(s) of the students.

The political authorities have published an educational project and a pedagogical project.
The educational project defines the main objectives of education.
The pedagogical project gives recommendations as far as the teaching methods are concerned.
Apart from those two projects, each special school works out its own project, which defines the concrete actions to be carried out in the institution in order to achieve the aims of the educational project.

The First Curriculum (called "enseignement de forme 1")
The aim of this curriculum is to prepare the adolescents to live in a residential centre for grown up disabled people. The emphasis is put on socialisation, communication and autonomy.
An individual learning programme is established for each child. The manual and intellectual skills of the child, as well as its own interests, are taken into account.

Disabled adolescents can attend a special school until they are 21 years old. During the last school year the staff, in collaboration with the parents and the social workers, try to find an institution or a home that will take charge of the young adult.
In exceptional circumstances, the Education Minister can allow the adolescent to stay in a special school after the age of 21. It is surely the case when no institution can be found.

The Second Curriculum (called "enseignement de forme 2")
The second curriculum prepares the young disabled people to work in an ETA (entreprise de travail adapté). An E.T.A. is a protected workplace where the methods of working, the tools, the machines and the equipment have been adapted to the handicap(s) of the workers.

The curriculum consists of two stages (or phases) of maximum two years.
During the first phase, the emphasis is put on socialisation and communication.
During the second phase, the manual skills of the children are developed in order to prepare them to work in an E.T.A. Some schools work closely together with the nearest E.T.A. A placement of several weeks in the E.T.A. is often organised and supervised by the teachers. Unfortunately, E.T.A.'s must be economically profitable and young disabled adults (especially those having followed this curriculum) do not always fulfil the expectations of the employers.

Some schools belong to the HORIZON PROJECT. It is a European project, and its aim is to gradually integrate the young adult into an E.T.A. A social worker helps the student for a period of two years.
As it was the case in the first curriculum, young people who do not find a job when they leave school at the age of twenty-one can be allowed by the Minister to stay at school for one or two more years.

The Third Curriculum (called "enseignement de forme 3")
The third programme gives the students a technical training. At the end of their school attendance, they are normally able to find a job on the real labour market.

The third curriculum consists of three stages (or phases).
During the first phase, after a period of observation, the student chooses a professional sector (agronomy, industry, cooking, social and family services, building trade…)
The vocational training is polyvalent. It means that the students who, for instance, have chosen the building trade sector will get familiar with different jobs of the sector: masonry; stonework; plumbing; carpentry.
In the second phase, the student chooses a professional group: masonry or plumbing or carpentry.
In the third phase, the student chooses a job: carpenter or plumber or bricklayer or stonemason or cabinet-maker.
The length of each of the described phases depends on the competences acquired by the students.
At the end of the second and third phases, a vocational training certificate is awarded by a jury of teachers and other professionals.
About 70 percent of our students leave school with a qualification.

In the third form, during the 1st and 3rd phases, the students are specially prepared to find a job by themselves. During the last two school years, they spend eight weeks on placement in an enterprise.

The Fourth Curriculum (called "enseignement de forme 4")
The fourth curriculum is the same as in ordinary schools but the number of students in each class is limited: 7 or 8. Moreover the teachers have the adequate equipment at their disposal and are helped by medical auxiliaries (e.g. physiotherapists, psychotherapists, nurses…). The certificates conferred are the same as the ones awarded in ordinary schools.

ABOUT THE TRANSITION
- The situation of students after school is one of our main preoccupations. In this respect, much time and energy is devoted to help the students find their place in society and become responsible citizens.
- We give our students necessary information about the different public services that can help them. For example, the students spend one or two days in the Town hall where they get information about their social rights and obligations.
- When they have left school and if they do not find a job, they keep contact with the social worker of their school.
- Since 1998, a course of social education has been introduced in the third curriculum. In that course, the students learn their rights and responsibilities as citizens, but they also learn how to bring meaning to their lives.
- Another characteristic of the special schools is the place reserved to creativity. In fact, we think that for disabled young people, creativity and originality are as important as technical and practical skills.
- In ordinary secondary schools, the weekly timetable has only one period of artistic education during the first two years.
- Medical staff in special schools (that is, a doctor, nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists) help the teachers.

AWIPH
The Wallon Agency for the Integration of the Handicapped Person is a public utility service created in 1995 and whose purpose is to help disabled people in the following matters:
- individual help for integration,
- career advice and guidance,
- access to jobs in the normal working world or in firms where the working methods have been adapted,
- financial measures to encourage employers to engage disabled workers.

For more information on AWIPH, please, check http://www.awiph.be/.

In conclusion, we can say that disabled children are accepted as they are: with their qualities and their differences. We practise individual teaching and we refuse failure. All our efforts have only one aim: to help them to become happy and responsible citizens.