“ABOUT LAUREATES…” IN YESTERDAY’S FORUM: With love to Mr Gokhool
Everybody can be wrong and everybody can be right. Beliefs strongly supported by those who did not understand the 'rivers and rivulets' of the future education system were upturned. Do not be nostalgic; you criticise yet praise. On which side of the fence do you stand?
You took too much time to react. A few questions to you Ex. Hon. Minister of Education.
a) What did you do to react to redress the marginalisation of confessional schools?
b) How many colleges did our tax-payers construct when you sat on the 'maroquin ministériel'?
c) What were the steps taken by you personally to bring back our laureates after graduation?
d) What did you do to end the rat-race? Who introduced the 'A+' system?
e) Where is your world-class quality education?
Comments
Just wanted to say that the Rat Race is esssential for survival and for top performances.
Why is everybody against it? Without competition or Rat Race, we would not produce tems such as Man Utd, people like Barack Obama, countries like Mauritius & Singapore...
The rat race has its benefits....
Please everybody, try to always see both sides of a coin...
Thanks
You are right in saying competition improves performances. But should it be imposed on innocent tender 10 year olds, in the unique manner as is done in Mauritius?
You've mentioned football, ok. Do you sincerely think that high level football is just sane competition for sports sake, or is it just a money-making business?
Did Obama sit for a CPE type exams in the USA? (By the way, will voters accept a Mauritian 'Obama' as PM, on the basis of his competence?)
Mauritius is far behind Singapore.
Mr Teeluck, competition should be sane, but not cut-throat, in order just to amass wealth greedily. And this unsane is what is leading our planet to destruction.....
Mr Kevin, you are right and whatever you just said makes sense as well as what Sailesh has said in his comment.
Moreover, a few points are quite debatable.
Firstly, the discussion here is not on Barack Hussein Obama, but on Education sector in Mauritius. But it is worth noting that Obama, even if he did not have to sit for CPE exams, surely he must have sat in various exams in his life before becoming the President of the United States.
Furthermore, he has gone through a very very tough rat race, the very same rat race which you are condemning, before becoming the President of the MOST POWERFUL country of the world. If it was for sane competition, it would have been unlikely that he could have been where he is now.
Having said that, to my humble opinion, competition has its advantages and disadvantages, and as was said earlier by Sailesh: always see both sides of the coin and i will add to that: Respect the opinion of others like others respect yours...
Well, well, well, look what we have here ...The rat-race is for rats, not children. Who wins the rat-race? The best rat. Which nation produces the best rats?
For a less rosy-coloured view of past US presidents:
http://www.cracked.com/article_16590_6-great-us-presidents-their-crimes-...
SS, your glorification of "the MOST POWERFUL country of the world" is quite disturbing. It is constantly being criticised for its double standards on human rights. How many international human rights laws has it ratified since December 2002? NONE. Here is the list:
Is that something to be proud of?
Hi Sunita,
You are right in saying the discussion is not on Obama but on Education in Mauritius. But I humbly remind you, it was not I who took him as example at the start, yet you have said more on him than I myself. Surely he has gone through several exams, but I can say for certain that education in the USA is far different from the rote learning so prevalent here.
1.So the issue is not TO DO AWAY WITH COMPETITION..THIS IS A FAR BETTER WAY OF APPROACHING THE PROBLEM OF CPE
WE NEED COMPETITON BUT IT SHOULD BE FAIRER...AGREE
2.TELL ME WHO ARE THE BEST PEOPLE WHO CAN DECIDE HOW MUCH COMPETITON THEIR CHILDREN CAN SUPPORT?YOU ,ME OR THE PARENTS?I HOPE YOU KNOW THE NOTION OF PARENTAL CHOICE?IF COMPETITION IS NOT ILLEGAL AND IF PARENTS ARE THOSE WHO ARE THE BEST PEOPLE TO CHOOSE FOR THEIR CHILDREN.....THEY CAN CHOOSE NOT TO PUT PRESSURE ON THEIR CHILDREN AND DECIDE THAT THEIR CHILDREN SHOULD NOT AIM FOR HIGH DEMAND/START COLLEGES?THEIR CHILDREN CAN STILL BE ADMITTED TO REGIONAL COLLEGES IF THEY PASS THE CPE. THEY HAVE THE POSSIBILITY OF EXERCISING CHOICE..DON'T THEY ?
OR DO YOU THINK ITS A GOOD IDEA TO IMPOSE NO COMPETTION FOR ALL ?WOULD THAT BE DEMOCRATIC?
TO END TELL ME WHERE THERE IS A SYSTEM OF EDUCATION WITHOUT ANY FORM OF COMPETITION>
Dear Mr Gokhool
Before responding to your question "Where is there a system of education without any form of competition?" it seems appropriate to ask if you are the same Dharam Gokhool who was Minister of Education from 2004 to 2008. If you are then it is sadly not surprising given the obvious lack of talent found amongst the pool of politicians in general.
The answer you seek is team based learning coupled with continuous assessment. It may not be the perfect system, but it exists and for someone of your elevated position to not know this is shameful, is it not?
Apologies if this shatters your bliss.
World class education?
Mr Gokhool, our educational system is ill, from head to toe!!!
C.P.E. = Rat race = Bourrage de crane = Crime Pour Enfants
Secondary school: F3 national exams = catastrophic = due to examiners at MES not in touch with teaching
SC: Formerly when a student obtained an aggregate 6, he/she was already considered as a potential laureate. Nowadays the star schools get aggregate 6 by a few dozens.
HSC: Idem as for SC. The number of 3 A's have considerably gone up.
Ask any honest secondary school teacher: He/she will tell you that the level of the papers have considerably if not drastically gone down!!!
Be humble please, you've got nothing to boast about the SC/HSC results!
Absenteeism of SC/HSC pupils: Very high as from 2nd term, star school or not. What then do the schools, including star ones, contribute?
Why do we have massive private tuition?
What do our youth represent in terms of absolute competence?
What is done to counter indiscipline?
What is done to promote civic education, ethics, morality, respect to elders?
If this is what you call World Class Education, then I'm scared, really scared.
The latest debates have evolved from the issue of the regional college laureates. Instead of showing your bitterness due to the praise given rightly or wrongly to your predecessor's reform, you could have instead made the following cost-benefit analysis: in the progress of our country, what is/has been the contribution of our laureates?
Achieving quality in education is a process ..never an activity.Like we say a journey ,not a destination.
I will not repeat what I have already stated as my contribution in terms of Educational Reforms.
You seem to have a different appreciation of my reforms and I don't think whatever I will say will make any difference in your way of thinking.And I don't think this discussion will lead anywhere
If you believe that Obeegadoo was so smart,then you must work hard to bring a change of Government and see Obeegadoo back as Minister of Education....May be he could solve all the problems you have mentioned and undo what Dharam Gokhool did as Minister of Education....
But am prepared to continue the discussion if you come back and ask my views on the problems that affect our Education system..you could also make some suggestions instead of puting forward a shopping list of problems.
IfI go by the list,our Education system should be scrapped.
In any case ,nowhere in the world you can come across an Education system which is perfect
<<.. Instead of showing your bitterness due to the praise given rightly or wrongly to your predecessor's reform..>>
Rest assured I am a very happy human being..there is no place for bitterness in my life.
You are right, our Education system should be scrapped, replaced by a totally new system.
Q1.Where is your world-class quality education?
in its strategy document on Education that argued ACCESS is not enough and proposed QUALITY Education for All as its new strategy.
ADEA Peer Review commissioned by 2001-2005 Government also underlined the need to focus on Quality and in its Government Programme 2005-2010 adopted the policy of going beyond ACCESS. Those who understand Policy making will realise that Labour did not deny the policy of broadening ACCESS; it went beyond and incorporated QUALITY in Education.
Why WORLD CLASS QUALITY EDUCATION? Aim for the Moon and if you miss the moon you will still land among the stars. Don’t the children of MRU have the right to DREAM?
In spite of all the criticisms, World Class Qualtiy Education is marching ahead. A new Directorate of Quality. Assurance now exists at the Ministry to look after QUALTIY IN EDUCATION. There are other measures also in place.
I AM PROUD OF HAVING MAINSTREMED THE NOTION OF QUALITY IN OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM
Q2. What did you do to end the rat-race? Who introduced the 'A+' system?
I introduced the A+ as part of the Labour policy of EDUCATIONAL REFORMS .
The GRADING SYSTEM OF 2003 HAS NOT BEEN ABANDONED. The A+ is a refined GRADING SYSTEM. Previously GRADE A accounted for 70 marks and above; A+ accounts for 90 plus. An Education system must cater for all categories of children with different potential. I don’t believe in nivellement par le bas, nor do I believe in UNIFORMISATION(ONE SIZE FITS ALL) which was happening when children having reached 70 marks stopped making their extra efforts.
With GRADING of OBEEGADOO, do you know how selection was made for a seat if two children had the same GRADE ? Go and check and then we can discuss.One day I will reveal how Mgr Piat replied to the same question when I asked him how he would go about it ?
The policy of LABOUR was to revert to FORM 1-V1 COLLEGES and A+ was to recognise children having made the extra efforts. Those who did not attain A+ were still able to join the REGIONAL colleges.
In teh 50% seats allocated to CONFESSIONAL AND PRIVATE COLLEGES,they can still opt not to stick to A+ GRADE;AND THIS IS WHAT CONFESSIONAL SCHOOLS DO?So A+ provides the choices...more options for admission to Form 1
Q3.What were the steps taken by you personally to bring back our laureates after graduation?
On this one you could ask the same question to ex-Minister OBEEGADOO...may be you will get the same answer ..so do ask him and come back.We will discuss then
Q4.What did you do to react to redress the marginalisation of confessional schools?
You must substantiate what you mean by “MARGINALISATION OF CONFESSIONAL SCHOOLS?”Then I can and will answer.
Private Secondary Schools Authority (PSSA) deals with both Confessional Colleges and Privately owned colleges. You may have to explain what you mean by “MARGINALISATION OF CONFESSIONAL SCHOOLS?”
Why pin-point CONFESSIOANAL COLLEGES and leave out PRIVATELY OWNED colleges? WHY THIS SEGREAGATION MINDSET????????????????