HAVE you ever seen engineers building an anachronistic ship – one which will be set to sail without any prior testing and no destination?

This is the feeling I have when I look at the current educational system of Mauritius.  2015, the year a new government instilled hope and faith in the population also instilled disbelief among secondary level students; introduction of a new regulation – attendance of 90% at school failure of which shall lead to non application to students. Uncertainty hovered for some days and it disappeared. No SC/ HSC students of 2015 were liable to any sort of payment even if the criteria were not met. Due to lack of information, students of Form IV and Lower VI in 2015 were not aware whether they should abide by the newly “imposed” regulation or not. Ignorance is bliss, but certainly not for Mauritian students.

Upon promotion to their final year, in May 2016 a new correspondence from the Ministry of Education – circular No. 12 reiterating the conditions regarding subsidies – was sent to all schools. This surely caused a lot of buzz among students whether these criteria should be met or not, since no attention had been given to same the previous year.

On the 25th of May, another circular No. 25 with an Eligibility Criteria Form (ECF) sent for parents to certify payment in case criterion of Ministry was not met was similar to signing a contract with undefined terms and conditions. No payment dates were mentioned until the 2nd of September 2016. The question haunting me is: what happened during those five months that parents were not notified about the absences? Ever since, Mauritian students have to keep abreast of news every hour for we have such unpredictable correspondence from the Ministry and MES.

Three days only to pay a hefty sum of money at first, then five days, then one month and a half to finally get another circular on Thursday. This, in particular, described yet another new method of compiling absences up to 9th September 2016. Students not attending school for the 3rd term now have to pay for the exams since this accounts for more than 10% of absences. Consequently, most students will have to pay. This adds up to the stress of students whose parents cannot afford the exams and heavily impact on the revision of students.

Not paying for the examinations now seems to be a tragic misconception!