Interview with Patricia Ceysens, Flemish Minister for Economy, Enterprise, Science, Innovation and Foreign Trade, Belgium

Patricia Ceysens is 42 and has three sons. She graduated from the law school of the Catholic University of Leuven in 1988 and also obtained a degree in Marketing Management from CMO (now Syntra) in 1991. Patricia was a lawyer at the bar in Leuven from 1988 till 1999. From 1990 onwards, she practiced law in Brussels at Loeff, Claeys, Verbeke (now Allen & Overy Belgium), where she specialised in intellectual property rights. From 1989 until 1990, she acted as an academic assistant at the law school of the KU Leuven.

Patricia started her political career as a town councillor in 1995. In the same year she also became provincial councillor and was elected as a member of the Flemish Parliament. In 1999 Patricia Ceysens became the president of the Health Commission. In June of 2003 she became the Flemish Minister of Economy, Foreign Policy and E-government. Since 2004 she has been President of the Open Vld group in the Flemish Parliament and Vice-President of her party. In 2007 she was appointed Flemish Minister for Economy, Enterprise, Science, Innovation and Foreign Trade, Belgium.

www.patriciaceysens.be

Online Educa Berlin: Which role does technology play in your personal life?

Patricia Ceysens: ICT plays a very important role in my life. Frankly I couldn’t live without the technology we have today. Through the years I have evolved from regular office working to e-working from home, whereby I had to dial in to contact the parliament, to mobile working. My PDA allows me to work while I’m on the move. I can keep in touch with my co-workers, answer their e-mails, etc.

Online Educa Berlin: The terms "e-mama" and "e-papa" have made the leap from your book in 2004 into the Dutch Van Dale Dictionary in 2007. Which concept is behind the terms, and why do you think they were so successful?

Patricia Ceysens: E-mama and e-papa are concepts that are based on two tracks. The first is the so-called e-working idea. People working from home can stay in touch with their employer thanks to his or her computer and the internet, which make it possible to send documents to the company at any time. This allows the worker to spend more time with the family and also saves time on the daily commute to and from the company.

The second track facilitates the combination of work and family by encouraging third parties to take over domestic tasks. One of the greatest successes in this area was the government-subsidised check to hire domestic help. Another example was the expansion and subsidising of daycare.

Online Educa Berlin: Are these buzzwords, or do you think this illustrates a trend in society?

Patricia Ceysens: I think it’s definitely a trend. We see that the number of companies that implement e-working grows every year. The Flemish government already implemented e-working a few years ago.

Online Educa Berlin: What are the main challenges of the "e-mama" Patricia Ceysens?

Patricia Ceysens: Combining my work and family. I have three boys at home and a busy political career. I try to keep a balance between the two. Thanks to new technology like the cell phone, internet, computer and PDA I can. Now I want to give others the possibility to experience the advantages of e-working.

But I do not only see the challenges in combining work and family; I also see it in education. There is a need for more ICT use in education. The ministry of education has recently set ICT end goals for each educational level toward which every student must strive. I think this is a good first step, but more efforts are needed if Flanders wants to maintain its current level of educational quality.

The world is becoming more of a village than ever, and inexperience with ICT is a handicap we can’t afford. Because I believe this, I want to introduce the i-kids project whose goal is to equip every pupil with a laptop.

Online Educa Berlin: What is the 'i-kids' project?

Patricia Ceysens: E-mama is an icon that stands for the combination of work and family and for working from home in an electronic way. i-kids is the icon for the generation of children to come and the way we should educate them by upgrading our educational system to a “2.0.” version.

This means innovation in teaching and integration of ICT throughout the learning process. We use the term ‘i’-kids instead of ‘e’-kids because our system no longer only has to be ‘electronic’ but also ‘innovative’, which means the frequent use of ICT in learning processes and one laptop per child. It also stands for ‘interactive’, which means that interactive whiteboards are used in classes instead of the green boards with chalk and educational software instead of books. And finally, it also refers to ‘intercultural’: kids have contact in an electronic way with other classes all over the world.

Online Educa Berlin: Given that technology has changed the way we learn today -and especially children - what can or should politicians and governments do to prepare society and educational institutions for this changed approach to education?

Patricia Ceysens: The current measures don’t suffice. If Europe doesn’t want to fall behind the United States, we will have to invest more in the use of ICT and upgrade and innovate in the educational system.

Flanders has to invest in ICT for education, but not at random; an integrated approach is needed. Teaching in Flanders is still too traditional, especially the education for small children. That’s why I believe that the government should invest in digital whiteboards as well as laptops.

Universities and colleges are starting to rely more on e-learning or a blend of e-learning and traditional classroom education. Here the government should invest in the support of e-learning and in the creation of a digital learning environment.

Online Educa Berlin: Mrs Ceysens, Thank you very much for your time.

The interview was conducted by Beate Kleessen, OEB news team.

You can hear more from Patricia Ceysens in her keynote in the Opening Plenary at Online Educa Berlin on Thursday, November 29.

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