Antwerp (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Former pupil Remi Baekelmans, who attended Omnimundo during WWII, returned to his Antwerp primary school. The renovated neo-renaissance building now welcomes 220 students from 30+ nationalities, says director Sven Hapers.
As VRT News reported, Former pupil Remi Baekelmans returned to the renovated Omnimundo, a neo-renaissance school in Antwerp. Remi Baekelmans, who used to go to the school, talks about how education has changed. He says that when he was a student, the teacher was the boss. Students could answer questions sometimes, but the teacher always led the class.
He mentioned that now, teaching is different. It’s more about talking and getting students involved. Remi thinks this helps kids learn better and think for themselves. After Omnimundo, Remi became a professor at 2 universities.
How has Omnimundo School’s renovation shaped learning for its diverse students?
Recently, Omnimundo was carefully renovated to keep its old look while adding new things for education and being eco-friendly. They cleaned the front of the building to make it look new again. Inside, they changed walls and added floors for the growing number of kids.
They also made it brighter and more open to help kids move around, work together, and learn. Nabilla Ait Daoud, who is in charge of education, says the building is special and they made sure to respect its history while getting it ready for the future:
“Every stone has history“
“We have over 30 nationalities here, but when the kids walk in here, they’re all the same”
Sven Hapers, director of Omnimundo
Sven Hapers, the director, says the school is friendly to everyone after the changes. He says they made it bright, airy, and spacious for the kids in the area, which is a great thing. The school has students from over 30 different countries, but everyone feels like they belong.
Mohammed, Oscar, and Nite are happy about the new classrooms because they didn’t like the temporary ones they used before. The school can hold 220 kids, but there are still about 40 spots open, so more kids can join.
“Every now and then, you were allowed to think of an answer to a question, but in the past, the teacher had the final,”
Says Former student Remi Baekelmans (89)
According to officials, Omnimundo, a big school built in 1876 on Van Maerlantstraat in Antwerp, is a great example of neo-renaissance architecture. Its old facade has seen over a hundred years of history, including World War II.
Over 80 years ago, a student named Remi went to this school during the war, from 1941 to 1944. The war made school life hard—air raid alarms often stopped classes, and everyone had to go to the basement. Remi mentioned that even with these problems, the teachers tried to keep things normal and keep teaching.
