Following the 2023 HSC results and the proclamation of the list of laureates, the education committees and education spokespersons of different opposition political parties, via their press conferences and comments, gave us some indications of their main proposals on the reform of our education system.
You are likely to be deceived if you are going to expect a total overhaul of the system. It will not be much different from the dysfunctional state system run by the hopeless Leela Devi Dookun Luchoomun; it will be mere tinkering at the edges, some pure political opportunism and petty point-scoring on the laureate system (appealing to their sense of patriotism ), on the introduction of Kreol Morisyen, on meritocracy, on the creation of several development hubs that need to be created or further developed in order to attract more new Mauritian talent, greater flexibility for the criteria for admission to HSC, on the shortage of teachers ,the professionalization of online teaching, the revision of the examination calendar and of course a special note for whose who did not pass.
That’s it, these are the politicians who are promising us “Chanzman” !
We should not be celebrating the laureate system and begging them to come back and work for the country but demanding the abolition of the laureate system ! Is it too demanding to come to terms with the failure of our dysfunctional education system or is it much easier to engage in the rhetorically tortured concepts of the pro-poor political narrative hiding the fact that the whole educational reform is a farce as we cannot go about it on tiptoe, piecemeal and haphazardly while avoiding to challenge the status quo.
A rethink is needed not cosmetic changes to our system that is helping to entrench inequality of opportunity - What meritocracy are they talking about !!! When glaring needs in pre-primary and primary education are crying out for more urgent assistance, we are celebrating a system that subsidises the elite and encourages brain drain …
When so many countries have reformed their education system to be more in tune with today’s challenges and needs , we are still continuing with a rotten and elitist system that is failing our children and the country !!
The Extended Stream, EP, (previous ZEP project) is another abomination of our elitist education system - a mere patch up where we persist in applying the same traditional approach, the small touches at the fringes in an attempt to improve the system.
As a reminder to our politicians promising us a “fake Chanzman”, I’ll take a leaf from a previous article , quoting Professor Jacques Lafitte, pedagogical adviser and trainer
“Quand j’étais prof, ma grande ambition était les 40% qui ne réussissaient pas. Ce sont des jeunes qui ne se sont jamais retrouvés dans le système et qui ont été handicapés par un environnement familial douteux. Si on ne s’occupe pas de ces rejetés du système, ce sont eux qui briseront nos maisons, etc. Lorsqu’ils se regroupent, ces “drop-outs” constituent une force, une bombe. Donc, plus on favorise l’élitisme et on ne s’occupe pas de ces jeunes rejetés, plus on laisse l’exclusion faire son œuvre. On parle de lauréats mais de l’autre côté, c’est la violence pure qui s’accumule... Cela donne ce qu’on a là. »
I (and others) have extensively written on the main elements of genuine reform programme -...more than affirmative action, the priority should be huge investment in human resources and addressing the inefficiencies and widespread inequities in learning opportunities and outcomes in the primary and secondary levels via a more cooperative education approach that raises the average from the bottom rungs such that it brings about a profound effect on the overall result-smaller groups, more tailored curriculum to individual pupils, more one-to-one teaching does entail more staff, more resources and more space within schools- It is indeed a formidable challenge….(refer to my Blog at RChand Corner)
I just wanted to point out that these politicians are again taking us for a ride….Even some bloggers commenting on the Laureate issue seem to be one step ahead of them- Arele Ray Lindsay "Bisin faire zot étudier á l'Université de Maurice et donne zot ene pocket money et fini propose zot ene emploi garantie dans filiere de zot choix. Ainsi zot pas pou interesser alle dehors et gouvernement pou save boucoup l'argent qui capave re-investir dans l'education pou tous éleves!"
There are powerful dynamics that are reshaping the education system to expand skills, broaden horizons and hold a competitive mirror against world standards, especially the fundamental changes in the approach to education with more emphasis on teaching people to think creatively and critically responding to the imperatives of a new economy. Equally significant are the life-long learning possibilities that will allow a succession of re-trainings and further training to equip people with the multi-skilled flexibility for the rising requirements and periodic changes that will be the characteristic of work in the coming decades.
The way that our politicians are thinking about the reform in bits and pieces, lacking a holistic coherence , makes us doubt whether our reformers are prepared for such needed changes to overhaul the whole education system. This demands huge investment in human resources. It is indeed a formidable challenge. We doubt whether they are getting ready for the future when they don’t seem to see the future coming to them.
