Thursday, December 16, 2010

How to make the zoning system work both at primary and secondary levels?

• Introduce regional merit list and an admission quota system

• Abolish national merit lists at primary & secondary levels

• Abolish the laureate system at HSC level

• Give the University of Mauritius the role it deserves


Introduction

Ours is a democratic system and it is not possible to coerce people to do anything beyond certain limits. It is, however, well within the powers of the authorities to create conditions where the citizen derives certain benefits by abiding by the rules. We all know that at present parents who have the means and know the right people, do not follow the zoning rules as far as admissions are concerned. Such parents cannot be blamed because the prevailing circumstances force them to act the way they are doing. The authorities are tolerating a system where the best academic results are produced by a handful of secondary schools which are given wide publicity. Which parent would not be interested in getting his/her child into these few secondary schools? And if experience shows that certain primary schools produce a larger percentage of “classés” who are eligible for admission to the so-called high-performing secondary schools why should a parent be blamed if he/she tries by all means (even if it implies beating the system) to get his/her child to these primary schools which may be miles away from his/her residence?


Patch work reforms will not do

If we analyze carefully the situation we would realize that the major weakness of our education system lies in the admission procedures to secondary schools. And to get rid of this weakness we need a thorough reform not the kind of patchwork which has characterized education reforms in recent years. These reforms sadly enough remind us of those workers mending our roads using a bamboo broom to sprinkle coal tar in a handful of macadam in a pothole.

1. First we have to establish a regional quota system which will determine admission not only to secondary schools six years from the time it is decided to implement the new system, but also to the University of Mauritius thirteen years later. This would imply that every state/confessional secondary school and any other school of comparative standard should be attached to a catchment area consisting of a specific number of primary schools. Whenever possible the primary schools in the catchment area should be selected on a random basis and rotated regularly.


At the end of the primary stage (after six or nine years in case we decide to go for the nine-year system), pupils would compete within the catchment area. The published results would indicate ranks within the catchment area and not on the national level.


2. Secondly, if we assume that the facilities offered in every primary school are of comparable standard and that children’s abilities are distributed normally in the population, a fixed percentage of seats in the selected secondary school should be reserved for every feeder primary school in the catchment area.


All these measures should be announced six years in advance so that they may have an impact on the choice of primary schools by parents. It is clear that the measures being proposed would force pupils to spread out evenly to all schools in the area. This would not only ensure a successful implementation of the zoning system but also a proper functioning of the system. Once the pupils of varied ability levels are evenly spread, the quota system will have all its raison-d’être.


3. Subsequently, we shall have to follow the same logic at the end of the secondary stage where a pre-specified percentage of seats for undergraduate courses at the University of Mauritius would be reserved for each zone depending on the secondary school-going population in the region. Some seats should be earmarked for candidates coming from secondary schools other than the selected secondary schools provided they satisfy the admission requirements.


4. It goes without saying that the laureate system at HSC level will have to disappear thirteen years from the inception of the new system. Given the development taking place at the University of Mauritius (and the amount of the taxpayers’ money that is being spent) the laureate system has become an anachronism – worse still, it constitutes an insult to the local university. It is a tacit acknowledgement that the local institution is not good enough for our best secondary school students. This implies that all foreign undergraduate scholarships should be converted to posy-graduate awards for graduates from the University of Mauritius.


Conclusion

So now the ball is in the court of the Masterplan Committee. The success of the changes proposed above will not depend on the goodwill of parents or teachers but on the desire of the authorities to introduce genuine reforms. If we want to produce a report which will have an impact on the present system, we cannot afford to continue having national ranking lists at the end of the primary and secondary stages. These national ranking lists constitute the cancer of our education system. They have to be replaced by regional/zonal lists. By implication we cannot also propose a system which perpetuates the laureate system. In short, we have to remove our blinkers if we want meaningful reform.



[First Published in Le Mauricien, 10.01.98]

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