The ‘Passeport TIC’ (ICT Passport) is a certificate whose objective is to specify a set of essential skills in the field of ICT* and to test their acquisition during the first level of secondary education. The assessment of students’ skills is based on an external evaluation – for which guidelines are provided by the Ministry (livret d’accompagnement), however as Baudouin Branders, from the ‘cyberecole’ unit of AGERS**, emphasised it is up to the teachers to choose their pedagogical approach.

Jean Pierre Hubin, from the Ministry of Education of the French Community of Belgium and general administrator of AGERS, explained that the project fits into the overarching strategic plan adopted by the Government of the French Community (on 11 July 2002) to coherently and globally integrate ICT into compulsory schooling.

Fabienne Winckel from the cabinet of the Minister-President of Education Marie Arena referred more in  detail to the objectives of the Strategic Plan and provided data on the ICT equipment that has been already provided to the schools of the Community. She also informed participants about the new wave of equipment which will be provided to schools in the Walloon region as of the beginning of the academic year. The  €60m plan will include setting up some 40,000 computers and 3,300 servers in schools. The aim is to reach an average ratio of 1:15 PCs per pupils.  

Since September 2003, 144 schools (and approximately 26,000 pupils) have participated in the project on a voluntary basis and what is striking so far is the students’ enthusiasm and excitement about their involvement.

These reactions are very positive; as Jean Paul Hogenboom (from the French Community Inspectorate) said: ‘the success of this initiative lies primarily in the motivation of teachers and students’

He added however that it should not be expected that the ICT integration be based on the good will of few people. Therefore he suggested disseminating the positive examples further with the aim to motivate a bigger part of the teaching world and thus achieve a more coordinated action in this field.

Baudouin Branders invited all participants to a Conference “Colloque TIC” on the use of ICT in education which will take place in spring 2007.

After the presentation of the project, Mrs Michèle Hallot, pedagogical advisor, presented the tools that have been developed to help teachers embed the use of ICT into subject teaching. Those tools include a number of suggestions and ideas that could inspire teachers to use ICT daily in their lessons and can be accessed at  http://www.enseignement.be/pass/ressources.asp

For more information about the ‘Passeport TIC’ project see http://www.enseignement.be/pass (in French).

* The basic ICT skills are divided in 5 Modules:

• Module 1: Basic use of computer (saving and retrieving documents)
• Module 2: Creating and using documents (use of Word, Excel, Power Point)
• Module 3: Using digital information sources (Internet, CD-Roms )
• Module 4: Communicate using email software
• Module 5: Develop citizenship skills (adopt a critical attitude towards information and threats on the Internet-digital right management and spam)

**Administration générale de l’Enseignement et de la recherche scientifique (General administration of the education and scientific research of the French community of Belgium) http://www.enseignement.be