Education in Belgium is regulated and for the most part financed by one of the three communities: Flemish, French and German-speaking. All three communities have a unified school system with small differences from one community to another. The federal government plays a very small role: it decides directly the age for mandatory schooling and indirectly the financing of the communities. The schools can be divided in three groups (Dutch: netten; French: réseaux): The latter is the largest group, both in number of schools and in number of pupils.