Extended Stream – 2.15% of passes at NCE – An in-depth analysis

Rajendra Sewpersadsing

I served the Ministry of Education for more than 40 years, and during my career I have worked mostly with failures of primary schools. I have always shown a keen interest in those kids. While in service, I submitted many papers to the Ministry with a view to offering a better education to those who have big learning difficulties among other handicaps.

Just before I retired from service, I carried a study on the Extended Stream, after one year of its implementation. The findings of that study were submitted to the Ministry of Education in a report entitled “Extended Programme – an evaluation process”. And, in that report I warned the Ministry that the Extended Programme (EP) will lead all the EP students to failure. They would come out after four years without any achievement or attainment. The Ministry paid no heed to my warning; it stood guided by wrong advice and/or overpowering ego. After my retirement, I kept on expressing my apprehensions about the Extended Stream by alerting the authorities through various press articles (all published in the Forum Page of Le Mauricien).

The first cohort of EP students sat for the National Certificate of Education (NCE) exams in October 2022 and I was very much eager to know the outcome because the study I carried out, evidenced that those EP students were “failures in the waiting”. When the NCE results came out, there was complete silence from the authorities. No press conference to comment on the results by the Hon. Minister nor by the Director of the MES. I wrote to the Director of the MES to get some information about the NCE results, more particularly for the Extended Stream. My request was left unanswered. I could understand the position of the MES Director.

Until finally, I learnt from a Press Conference by the Labour Party that some figures were provided by the Hon. Minister through a PQ and detailed results of the NCE are available on the website of the MES (mes.govmu.org/mes/?page_id=6872). I have analysed the results and I wish to throw more light through this press article.

The Extended Programme was one main measure proposed in the Nine-Year Continuous Basic Education (NYCBE) educational reforms. After five years (instead of four years, due to lockdown and staggered timetable), schema 1 illustrates the output of the Extended Programme.

What does schema 1 highlight?

1. Some 3291 primary kids were admitted to the Extended Stream in 2018 under the Extended Programme (EP).
2. Along the way, some 533 students (16.2%) left the school system, (105 in 2019, 229 in 2020 and 199 in 2021). The reasons of those dropouts are obvious – the menu being offered is not digestible nor to the taste of the students.
3. In 2022, some 802 (29.1%) opted for not sitting for the NCE. Again, the reasons are obvious.
4. Some 1956 students opted to go for the NCE. 1885 students could not make it and only 71 (reply to a PQ from the Minister of Education) students passed the NCE.

Yes! Only 71 students out of the 3291 placed in that EP came out successfully. That’s it – 2.15% of the EP students passed the NCE and got promoted to Grade 10 in the mainstream. While, more than 3200 EP students who got embarked on that EP 2018 are without any achievement or attainment after five years. And, “we owe it to our children”, the Hon. Minister proudly expressed while presenting the educational reforms.

In my report, I concluded that the EP students will all fail the NCE. However, some 71 students did make it, because a criterion for passing the NCE has been changed just before the publication of the results. Initially, a candidate needs to pass in the three core subjects, namely English, French and Maths. But finally, the Ministry changed the ‘rules of the game’ and a pass in Maths and French is no longer compulsory to be promoted to Grade 10. And, one more reason to prove the implementation of the NYBCE by trial and error.

The detailed results in Table A of the performance of the EP students on a subject-wise basis:

(source: MES website)

The results published on the MES website and the reply of the Hon. Minister to the PQ, however do not provide any answer to the following questions:

(i) What is offered to those 1885 EP students who did sit for the NCE but could not make it? Will they be offered a seat in an MITD Training Centre? If yes, how many of them?

Is it worth to have them repeating the Grade 9+?

(ii) What actions are to be taken to stop dropouts? Children under the age of 16 should not be outside the school system.

(iii) What measures are to be proposed to have EP students completing their studies and sitting for final exams?

(iv) What about the next cohort of EP students? Will they be following the same track and come out the same way as the first cohort?

(v) What are the financial implications in the implementation of the EP?

1. How much has been spent on the textbooks, and other resources for the EP?
2. Had all the investments on EP produced the expected output?

(vi) And above all, results of exams reflect, alongside with students’ performance, the effectiveness of the designed curriculum. How does the MIE evaluate the “adapted curriculum” for the EP? The adapted curriculum was considered by the MIE as a magical recipe that would imperatively produce good results.

Hopefully, the above questions are put to the Hon. Minister as PQ. It appears to be the only way to dig out information for the knowledge of the general public.

April 2023