Midi-Pyrénées is a digital pioneer

SCHOOLS in the Midi-Pyrénées region are leading the way in the digitalisation of French schools.

By the end of next year 272 secondary schools in the region will use interactive websites which allow communication between parents, teachers and pupils - for example so parents can check if their children turned up to school and what grades they got in tests.

The sites, called Espaces Numériques de Travail (Digitial Working Spaces) or ENT, are financed by the state, region, EU and departments (apart from the Haute-Garonne, which is not taking part).

One of the first equipped is the Lycée Pardailhan d’Auch, in the Gers. Headteacher Pierre Martin said: "It’s a joint effort because the collèges [first four years of secondary school] are financed by the departments and the lycées by the regions. The site has the same design for everyone, but each establishment uses it in their own way.

"It’s both a communication tool and a teaching one.

"Parents, children and teachers have their own accounts and access to different sections.

"For example, absences are entered by the teachers and can be consulted in real time by parents. Parents have real-time access to children’s grades and cahiers de textes [homework notebooks], so they can see what homework they have."

Mr Martin said teachers can add resources and exercises and details of lessons coming up. "The content can be texts, video or audio. They have a computer in the classroom with a projector, so they can use the material in class and they can communicate with the parents and children in designed parts of the site."

Some pupils also do their homework on computer and submit it to the teacher’s space on the site, Mr Martin said. "Sometimes there are group homework tasks - there are forums and blogs to participate on. You can also have questionnaires to fill in which give the answers automatically. It depends how the teacher wants to work."

He said most students had computers at home, but there was also about one school computer to every two lycée students.

"The huge advantage is that the parents know at all times what their children are doing, the teachers can start working on lessons at home - it means schoolwork does not only have to take place within the walls of the school, but can happen anywhere. It’s a total opening up of the lycée."

Mr Martin said he thought systems like this would be the future for all French schools.

"It creates transparency - parents can’t say they don’t know what their child is doing, the children can’t say they didn’t know what the lesson was - because it’s still on the net.

"It creates better preparation and better communication between the different members of the school."