The French Ministry of Education, University and Research, the host of the visit, asked key players at various levels of the education system to report on their activities to widen the use of ICT use in education. These included Ministry representatives from different departments, inspectors and regional actors.

During the three-day meeting, peers from Northern Ireland’s Department of Education and the Finnish National Board of Education entered into an open discussion raising detailed questions on topics of concern. Northern Ireland showed high interest in quality and assessment, Finland currently looks into issues on how best to provide support services for schools.

Experts from the Nottingham University, the rapporteur from the CTIE in Switzerland and EUN supported the reflection process and questioned underlying rules and principles, challenging the host country for deeper insights.

The peer review dealt with the following points:

• Main characteristics of the French system;
• French ICT policy including education reform;
• Assessment schemes for teachers and students (B2i and C2i);
• Content initiatives: Action plan for publishing digital teaching materials; (Schene and the digital knowledge portal, ENS project);
• ICT practice in education;
• Training and Support.

In an open atmosphere also questions of current concern were discussed such as the assessing of the implementation of the B2I certificate for pupils, the evaluation of the RIP label for digital resources and the implications of Virtual learning environments (VLE’s) connecting schools and homes.

The issues presented are shortly discussed in the following brief. A comprehensive analysis report on the France visit looking into possible barriers and success factors of “scaling up ICT practices in education” will be a main deliverable of the P2P project conducted by Alan McCluskey (CTIE Switzerland). Moreover, each country writes reflection reports about the visit highlighting striking issues. David Wood (Nottingham University) accompanies the policy review process and will document the P2P methodology evolving.

Download the full brief (pdf)

Download the Country Report on ICT in Education 2005 (pdf)

Evaluation of the RIP label