The French ‘baccalauréat général’ is generally acknowledged to be a demanding university entrance examination. This is because of the breadth of the curriculum, and because of its common core, which includes subjects such as languages, philosophy and history-geography. The OIB grafts on to this structure two subjects taught in the target ‘foreign’ language: ‘langue-litterature’ (an advanced literature course) and history-geography. These subjects are taught at the level of the equivalent university entrance level examination in the country in question. Thus, for the British version, these two subjects are regarded as having ‘A’ level equivalence, and in some respects (the existence of stringent orals in both subjects, for example) go well beyond ‘A’ level requirements. OIB candidates have to take all other subjects in the baccalauréat in the normal way in French. Overall results of students taking OIB are generally much higher than the national average.

Most students taking this option are taking a linguistic risk of some sort. Mother-tongue French speakers are using their second language for high level tasks, including extended analytical essays, research, note-taking and oral discussion. Mother-tongue English speakers may be linguistically ‘at home’ in OIB subjects, but have to face two major challenges:

The achievements of students who have been educated in the International Sections within French lycées over the last twenty years show that this risk-taking leads to rapid linguistic progress and often to very good results. Linguistic gains for French speakers have often been maintained and increased at university level. Numbers of candidates for the British version of the OIB have doubled in the last five years, showing that there is a perception among students that these risks are worth taking.

Students are taught in English using a pedagogy which is British, and based explicitly on the best of current practice in England and Wales. French educational culture predominates, of course, in the part of the OIB taught in French and in all other subjects. This does not generally lead students to choose between one or the other. Rather, it leads students to reflect in an explicit and conscious way on educational culture and its aims, and on the most effective ways of learning for the individual. Best practice in the two OIB subjects makes explicit reference to this bicultural side of the examination.

The decrees issued by the French government in 1981 as the foundation of the OIB defined percentages of French and foreign students within International Sections preparing students for the OIB. Although these have not always been closely followed, all such sections contain a mix of French nationals and students of many other nationalities. Necessarily such teaching is ‘mixed ability’ in terms of linguistic mastery of the vehicle language, some students being native speakers, some good second language speakers, and some gifted linguists being very good third language speakers.

Improved practical mastery of English is an effect of such teaching, but the first goal is to use English as a vehicle for learning distinct and demanding content in two A level standard subjects. Progress in language mastery and application of skills comes via teacher modelling and from total immersion in class-rooms with very high first language demands (both in terms of oral/aural and literacy skills). It also comes from social contacts outside class, cemented by the sense of common educative purpose and identity, and sharing of cultures.

Improvement in using the target language is supported by a strong cultural content in both history-geography and in literature teaching. This has a strong reinforcing effect on linguistic gains.

The founding decrees issued by the French Ministry of Education state that OIB subjects are taught by foreign nationals who are mother tongue speakers of the target language and qualified as teachers in their own country. The OIB structure was thus based, from its inception, on certain foreign governments sending teachers from within their own state system to work in French schools.

In certain cases, the partner countries do not have centralized systems of teacher employment. This is the case with Britain. In the case of sections offering the British option, teachers are employed either directly by the French state, or by parents' associations working to support international education within the French state school system. English teachers employed directly by a French international school tend to have both British and French qualifications: those working within associations are normally qualified only in their country of origin.

Development of the OIB has been unwieldy because so many partners are involved, but change has taken place both within syllabi and in terms of languages admitted to the umbrella structure. The original languages were all western European; recently however, an Arabic version of the OIB has been launched, based on international sections in Morocco. The inclusion of the latter language is particularly significant, and may mark the beginning of a move to export the OIB to lycées outside France in a more widespread way. Polish and Japanese versions of the examination now exist.