The Ongoing Debate – Further Bits and Pieces

Education

Opinion

By Paramanund Soobarah

We are all celebrating the Laureate Season. Sincerest congratulations to all 48 of them. I cannot conceal my satisfaction that my own school (RCC) did so well, and I am equally happy that my other school, MGI Moka, where I studied Tamil for two years and Sanskrit for three in adult education classes, did as well as it did. Not to detract from the credit rightly deserved by the laureates, at that level of performance there is very little difference in ability between the laureates and the runners-up. My sincerest congratulations then also to them, the runners up. To them I also offer my heartfelt sympathies: You have not been labelled “Laureate” but you are not in any way worse than them. Only the foolish will think so.

Old people always hark back to their own times, and I am no exception. When I joined RCC in January 1947, all new entrants to the school were summoned to the hall where we were addressed by the Acting Rector, Mr André Glover, about the various parts and systems of the school and about what was expected of us newcomers. (Rector T. Barnes, an Englishman, was away on leave at the time; when he finally turned up later in the year, we found him an awesome figure, and also one that remained largely unintelligible to us – his English was awful, compared to Mr Glover’s, who was as clear as daylight.)

To come back to that memorable meeting in the hall, we were surprised to find a number of much older boys, some already sporting moustaches, in the last row. They were, we were informed later, the students of the Royal College in Port Louis who had completed their School Certificate, and had come to complete their Sixth Form at RCC. The fact was that in those days, only the RCC could run the Sixth Form (called “the English Scholarship” class) and produce laureates, of which there were only two – one for the classical side (Latin, Greek and that sort of stuff) and the other for what was still called the “Modern” side. There are more laureates today than there were students in both English scholarship classes combined. The St Joseph and St Esprit colleges were there, as also the Loreto Convent schools, but they could not produce laureates. By my time the Bhujoharry College in Port Louis and the New Eton College in Rose Hill had already established themselves. I have since watched the growth of our education – the initially slow development of private colleges. One small, personal, venture in Quatre Bornes was the Regent College, one of whose attendees was a boy from my own village (Palma) named Anerood Jugnauth.

The first developments in the number of laureates came when the special English Scholarship examinations were replaced by the Cambridge Higher School Certificate – a lowering of standards, according to many at the time. Private secondary schools were authorised to offer HSC classes, and one new laureateship were created for them. Thereafter private secondary schools mushroomed, and they jointly produced a laureate every year. Initially these laureates did not perform too well, but one, Sanjay Jawaheer of New Eton College, later Dr Jawaheer, came up with distinctions in all three main subjects. In 1976 the Labour Party under Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam introduced free secondary education for all and created the Private Secondary Schools Authority. The number of laureateships were also increased gradually to what it is today. The former English Scholarships were renamed the Sir Ramgoolam Seewoosagur Scholarships.

Beyond reminiscing about the past, I also looked at the MES statistics of SC and HSC results. I could not review the 2012 HSC data as an essential component was missing. I did follow up the SC2012/HSC2014 cohort, as well as the SC2022/HSC2024 cohort. One striking feature of these cohorts is the decline in the number of examinees: nearly 17,000 for SC2012 to just under 15,500 for SC2022. (They were down to only 12, 500 in 2024). This must be a matter for concern for the authorities. Concerning the number of HSC examinees, the decline was more pronounced: nearly 10,500 in 2014, but only 7,500 in 2024. But here the rule concerning the number of Credits required for access to the examination may have played its part. A detailed examination may reveal the precise effect of that rule. The number of passes have declined similarly, from nearly 8,000 in 2014 to nearly 6,000 in 2024.

Student employability

Cutting through the verbiage of official statements, the mission of the national education effort is to improve the culture of learners and enhance their employability, and also, to the extent possible, to instill the desire in students to start their own ventures, not only commercial but also technical. One issue that often dictates the choice of subjects to be studied is the student’s own view of what he is likely to be more successful in, regardless of its contribution towards his or her employability. The parent’s advice is also often more concerned about culture than employability.

Sadly, one more element has crept into the task list of the education system, namely the control of substance abuse in educational institutions. In this matter the Central Government has a role to play: it must begin by introducing the mandatory death penalty for drug runners and life-time imprisonment for drug peddlers. The Police must also move from the role it had under the “Lakwizin” government of planting fake evidence on people critical of the government to one of real policing, namely, to seek out and arrest enemies of society.

Regarding student employability, an important constituency — one that sadly doesn’t vote — is the employers, who could express their needs possibly through their Federation. Their input must be taken into account when framing education policies. Is the matter of the number of credits at SC level of any importance to them? And what about the matter of fluency in spoken English and/or French? They should clarify their views in writing to the Ministry of Education. There have reports of cases of University of Mauritius graduates who couldn’t express themselves at job interviews.

The Government is also an important employer; the various departments have their own set of qualifications for their recruits. It may be helpful to standardise the qualifications where this can be done without detriment to the departments concerned. Primary school teachers, policemen and prison staff, nursing staff, clerical staff (of the Central as well as local administrations) and other similar personnel do not usually require more than O-Level qualifications.

At least in my time (many decades ago) there was no official statement from the Central Establishment Division to the Ministry of Education about the likely needs of the government in the matter of educational qualifications. Each Ministry or Department put forward its own qualifications requirements as the need arose. No Ministry or Department put forward any requirements for basic spoken languages. All this must change if it hasn’t already. Furthermore, unless and until all employers jointly stress the need for spoken language proficiency in their recruitment procedures to the Ministry of Education, the present sorry state of affairs will continue. The Ministry of Education must have clear guidelines from employers and the Civil Service about their entry-level educational requirements.

Popular examination subjects

The 20 or so most popular examination subjects have remained largely the same. Mathematics tops the list; Economics, Accounting and Business come next, followed by Chemistry and Physics; Biology comes towards the end. Then come subjects like Hinduism and Islamic Studies, and Hindi and Urdu. It will not serve much purpose to enumerate all the subjects, but comment is called for. Why is that Geography and History are not studied in Mauritius, except in very rare cases? These subjects are great contributors towards culture.

One subject that nobody offered in the 2024 HSC examination was Thinking Skills. This is a most interesting subject, and is good for both culture and employability, and success in it enhances the self-confidence of the student like none other. It is my surmise that Mauritian students avoid these subjects for lack of expressive ability in the English language. My surmise seems to be confirmed because no student dared to offer English Language as a subject, even though Literature in English is offered by many.

There remains one question which must absolutely be dealt with. How reliable are the examinations? This is not to question Cambridge, but rather the MES. In the past when proof of irregularities in the conduct of examinations were presented to the Syndicate, they took action and reviewed the results. In the 2024 examinations, some students faced severe difficulties with the equipment provided for use in the Practical Physics paper at the St Esprit College Exam Centre. They protested during the exams and also wrote a group letter to the MES the following day. There has been no response or acknowledgement from that institution as yet. Those were the days of the “Lakwizin” government and protests from people not connected to the ‘Kitchen’ did not matter. Those days are fortunately over, and for good, we hope.

We hereby ask the new Minister to ensure that the particular complaint we are referring to is thoroughly investigated and Cambridge be asked to carry out such reviews as may be necessary. The future of students must not be allowed to be adversely affected by the improper conduct of MES officials.

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 14 February 2025