Education and Skills Development:

Sitting on a time bomb

Every year tens of thousands of students and their parents face a
gruelling task at the beginning of a cycle, whether it be for education,
training or the world of work.The uncertain future creates stress and
frustration. In what star primary school will the child be allowed to
enroll? To which star college will s/he gain admission? What
combination of subjects to opt for at different stages of the secondary
school cursus? What areas of study will lead to better prospects of
employment? And what about the children who have been branded as
failures after six years of primary schooling?
The publication of the list of laureates and best ranked candidates
following the results of last years HSC examinations has debunked
many myths about star schools and star colleges. Even the Prime
Minister seems to have welcomed the democratization of education,
which his own government had fought against in 2005. The MMM/MSM
government of 2000-2005, with Steven Obeegadoo as Minister of
Education, had built some 50 new Secondary Schools in all regions of
the country to get rid of ranking at the CPE examination. These new
schools had an even better infrastructure than the old established star
colleges.
But the government that took office after the 2005 general elections, with
Dharam Gokhool as Minister of Education, reversed this democratization
process and reintroduced ranking in a disguised way, obsessed with the
notion that the elite can be identified at the early age of 11 --- if not at
birth. The HSC results published this year shows that it is students
who create star colleges, not the other way round.

But the battle for democratization of education should also include

giving dignity to all children and developing their skills to make them

become useful citizens of the Republic of Mauritius. What are we doing

about skills development? We brand children as failures at the young
age of 11 and send them to secondary schools as third class students.
We have to get rid of the highly selective pass/fail CPE exam which has
no value in the modern world. Australia unveiled an ambitious plan last
year (costing A$9billion) for the development of the skills of all its
citizens of working age in a fast changing technological environment.
Singapore has a well prepared plan to guide and channel its students
along its education journey. More than 98% of the children complete
the primary school stage successfully at the first attempt and move on to
Secondary schools. Between 25 and 30% of a cohort move to the
Institute of Technical Education (ITE) centres after 4 years of secondary
education for training in different skills to become electricians, plumbers
etc. More than 40% of the cohort complete GCE O level and are
admitted to top class Polytechnics to follow a 3-year diploma course to
become technicians and middle level managers. The remaining 25 to
30% go to Universities after completing their Alevels.
We should learn from other countries like Australia and Singapore but
we need not do exactly as they are doing. We should replace the CPE
exam by a more broadbased assessment of each child in different
areas, based on grading in each examinable subject, but also on their
strengths in fields like sports, art and music. This profile will then be
used for admission to regional secondary schools (six to eight regions)
with no national college at this stage. Children will not be tagged with a
Pass/Fail label at the end of the primary cycle.
It is only at the level of Form III that there will be a national examination
for orientation purposes. Some children will then move to MITD and
private training centres for two years to obtain the necessary skills,
depending on their aptitude, for the world of work. Other more
academically oriented students can move to Specialized Upper
Secondary Schoole (those schools which are presently more sought
after) with the others staying in their secondary schools. After the
SC/GCEOlevel there should be well equipped Polytechnics as in
Singapore to accommodate them.This is where the future of Mauritius
lies to ensure economic development.
Others who have done well at the SC/O level exam can move on to
HSC/A level. The structure of our education and training system will be

roughly as given below. Obviously this is sketchy and needs to be

finetuned before it is finalized. But we cannot go on with the present set
up, which is very poor in skills development, leading to a high level of
unemployment. We need to defuse the time bomb before it is too late.
Surendra Bissoondoyal