CPE again! Let’s ask some ‘silly’ questions!
By Dev Virahsawmy
Instead of allowing some crafty magician to fool us into believing that all’s bright and wonderful, just ask some silly questions:
1. Why have over 6,000 boys and girls taking CPE for the first time this year failed?
2. Why are so many children aged between 10 and 11 still unable to read, write and count after a minimum of six years at school?
3. Of the 18,000 who have ‘passed’ how many have scored C’s or less than C in all subjects?
4. Can these children be considered literate in the sense that they can write in any of the 3 languages taught at school a short text on themselves (150-200 words) which is grammatically correct, coherent and reader friendly?
5. Why have over 3,500 repeaters failed again and have remained non-literate after having spent a minimum of seven years at school?
6. How many of the repeaters who have ‘passed’ have scored C’s or less than C in all subjects?
7. Are they literate as defined above?
8. The PM’s ambition is to make of Mauritius a ‘high income economy’? Can this be achieved in the absence of universal functional literacy?
* Published in print edition on 14 December 2012
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