Rosio Pavoris

Seeing as how I’ve now mentioned both TSO and BSO, I guess I might as well explain how that works.
Correct me if I’m wrong about anything, Corbarhan.

Essentially, after elementary school, kids pick their direction, choosing between BSO, TSO, KSO, or ASO.

KSO (Kunst-Secundair Onderwijs, Art Secondary Education) is a special case. For all intents and purposes, absolutely nobody does this. Parents who let their kids pick this might as well just kill them immediately and save them the effort of starving to death later in life.

BSO (Beroepssecundair Onderwijs, or Vocational Secundary Education) is essentially the lowest. I’m not entirely sure how it works, but I assume that at some point, kids pick a simple profession (like, uh, careperson for the elderly, or kindergarten person type) and get classes specifically to prepare for that.
In theory, none of these people go on to higher education, but I guess there’s an optional seventh year that lets them prepare for a hogeschool specifically. I honestly cannot imagine people who got along in BSO would be able to get through a real university.
Most of them wouldn’t be able to afford it, anyway. Lower class. D:

TSO (Technisch Secundair Onderwijs, Technical Secundary Education) is a more general, but still very practical education. This department produces almost all blue collar workers in Flanders. Again, I’m not too sure about the details, because these groups tend to be in separate schools entirely.
Most of these people don’t go on to higher education, but a not-insignificant number of them get into hogescholen, apparently.

ASO (Algemeen Secundair Onderwijs, General Secundary Education) is what most people do. This is what I did (along with almost everyone I know, obviously), so I know more about this. >.>
In the first year (the equivalent of 7th grade, I guess), kids pick between Latijn (Latin) and Moderne (Modern; I still don’t know what’s supposed to be modern here), and as they progress through the years, their options diversify.

I think Latin is the first one to split, in the second year, into Latin and Latin-Greek. Eventually it splits up into Latin-Mathematics, Latin-Sciences, and Latin-Modern Languages as well. The toughest of that is arguably Latin-Mathematics, which I did. Latin-Greek is actually the most difficult until the third grade (being the fifth and the sixth year, or eleventh and twelfth grade equivalents; the six years are divided into three grades of two years each for ease of standardisation of the curricula), but mathematics starts picking up somewhat later on. Greek still tends to be the smallest group. Our year had four people in the end, I think (compared to average class sizes of 20-25 or so).
The Latin directions are supposed to produce the intellectuals of the society, I guess, but most of them end up being merely average. Some Mensa lady told me the average IQ in Latin is 120, which might actually be possible. Pretty much all of these students go on to higher education, most often universities.

Moderne is what most people do, I guess. Eventually it splits into tons of things, like Menswetenschappen (Humane Sciences, but it’s a lot less interesting than that sounds) at the very bottom, through things like Economy-Modern Languages, to Mathematics-Sciences at the top. There are about a dozen options, usually, though individual schools sometimes add some. Ours had a Mathematics-Sciences with six hours of Mathematics per week, and one with eight.
Most of these people go on the higher education, obviously. Not sure how they’re divided between hogescholen and universities, but I’d guess more of them end up in hogescholen than universities, relative to the Latin students.

Classes depend on the option picked, obviously. There are some overlaps, but not as many as you’d think. Different options might share some classes, but on the whole, the people in their own option are the ones they have classes with.
Switching option paths becomes more difficult every year, and might be entirely impossible without starting over, which is interesting. The Central Exam Commission is supposed to help out with that (among other things).

I graduated in Latin-Mathematics (for the Central Exam Commission, which is a different story entirely, though I did also take that option while I was still in school), and so did Coren, I thought. I’m pretty sure I never knew what Barbara ended up doing, and I can’t remember what Quhan did.
So yeah. Essentially the most difficult path, now forced in with the lowest. Not the first time.