During the last few days, one has heard a number of persons pontificating the need for “star schools”. These have even been described by some as “centres of excellence”. While listening to them one wonders whether most of them know what they are talking about or whether some have even set foot in one of them. As a former Royal College Curepipe student and teacher who has also worked as a Research Officer at the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate, I can legitimately claim that I know something about these institutions.
There is no doubt that some of the students do obtain excellent School Certificate and Higher School Certificate results in “star schools” and deserve to be congratulated. However, considering that the intake of these “star schools” consist of top 300-400 CPE students, one wonders whether this is in any way significant from the school point of view, especially when what is often overlooked is the fact that these excellent results are achieved by less than 20% of the students.
Some 60% obtain only average results and it is estimated that the remaining 20% of them obtain below average results or fail altogether at SC/HSC levels. If the quality of the intake is taken into account, this amounts to a tragic waste.
For most people, what differentiates a “star school” from a non “star school” is the fact that laureates come almost exclusively from the “star schools.” These laureates are often the only visible outputs of these institutions. We cannot afford to overlook the bulk of the system.
Selfishness
While teachers and rectors of the “star schools” often bask in the glory of the laureates (somehow like the jockey who jubilates when his horse has won the race), they somehow refuse to assume responsibility for the large numbers who have either obtained below average results or failed altogether. I have even worked with a rector who was naively convinced that the main goal of the educational system was to produce laureates! While these laureates deserve credit for their efforts, it is high time we conduct a study to find out what has happened to most of them after the completion of their tertiary education (l’express 7th February 2000).
There is also considerable hue and cry about the need for competition. While there is no basic disagreement about this, we need to realize how this is translated in some of the classrooms of the State “star schools.” Competition often results in selfishness on the part of student, unwillingness to answer questions in class or to participate in class discussions so as not to share one’s knowledge with others. On the other hand, many students hide the fact that they are studying.
Some even go to the extent of disturbing classes in order to reinforce this impression. While competition is a fact of ten a fact of life, what is often forgotten is that in the world of work for instance, competition among colleagues is often discouraged. The focus is on teamwork which would enable one’s organization to deal with competition from other organizations.
The common factors uniting many of these State “star schools’ are inter alia badly maintained buildings, broken desks, shabby classrooms, dirty toilets, unstable and/or ineffective management which results in poor discipline among students and staff.
Not much teaching
While there are definitely many well-behaved students and conscientious teachers in these schools, it is a fact that management is often incapable of dealing effectively with cases of indiscipline partly because of bureaucracy and partly because of their own individual weaknesses.
Parents of children attending these State “star schools” are sometimes shocked by the number of days when teachers fail to take classes (some of them indirectly organizing the cancellation of classes by sending a subtle signal that they would not teach if only a certain number of students are present). As a result, not much teaching takes place in the last few weeks of the term. Some teachers even stop teaching as from the middle of September.
These same parents are forced to arrange for private tuition for their wards when they find out, for instance, that many of the language teachers do not correct more than a couple of essays in a term and sometimes in one whole year! One could wonder about the effectiveness of classroom inspection or supervision, if at all this takes place in a systematic manner.
While the above description of State “star schools” may appear like a caricature to some readers knowledgeable persons would readily acknowledge that it is based on facts. Readers would also agree that the sterile debates (sometimes with the unnecessary communal overtones) on the subject, in the National Assembly and the media, rest on baseless assertions rather than concrete data.
At the end of the day, of some people insist on referring to schools like those described above as “centres of excellence,” it is high time they clarify the basis of their arguments. It is hoped that these would be devoid of emotional loading and have at heart the advancement and well-being of future Mauritian generations.
[First published in L’Express, 29.05.2001]
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