Bright Up Programme – Repeating past errors

In my last press article (See Le Mauricien of 9 January 2024), I voiced out my apprehensions with regard to the Bright Up programme.  It was mainly targeted towards alerting the ministry of education.  Because, it appears that the ministry does not learn from previous mistakes, worse it repeats the same mistake. In fact, the Bright Up programme is a new project designed to accommodate the students of the Extended Stream who have failed the National Certificate of Education Exams last year.  Those students are admitted in the MITD training centres and the National Sports Council will provide assistance in the sports domain.

In that press article, I raised my concern about the availability of seats to accommodate all potential candidates for the Bright Up programme.  Some 1950 students of the Extended stream failed the NCE and some 1100 EP students dropped out; and they all need to be brought back into the education system. That makes a total of more than 3000 potential boys and girls aged below 16 who deserve to be enrolled in the Bright Up programme.

Table 1

As shown Table 1 above, there are only some 1600 seats for the 3000 potential students.  No doubt, the number of seats is limited and practically impossible to enroll them all.

My second concern was the distance the students will have to travel to attend the training centre.  To highlight a few examples,

• La Gaulette Training Centre will admit students residing in the districts of Savanne and Black River.  So, a student living in Chemin Grenier will have to travel to La Gaulette.
• Sebastopol SSS will accommodate students from the districts of Moka and Flacq.  A student will have to travel from Moka to Sebastopol.
• Rose Belle Training Centre will accommodate students coming from as far as Bambous Virieux, Vacoas, Phoenix, ….

This second concern has resulted in many students declining the offer.  Many of those students have preferred to repeat Grade 9+ in their respective secondary school.   Moreover, I am afraid, among those who have been admitted, many of them will drop out on the way ahead.  I can foresee that from experience.  The ministry has not learnt, instead it is repeating the same mistake.

In that same press article, I made a humble request for timely actions because the ministry of education is reputed for lateness in almost all matters.  School textbooks are still not available for many subjects; there is an acute shortage of educators and the ministry is late with the recruitment exercise.  From information gathered, the curriculum (syllabus) for the Bright Up programme is not yet ready.  The MITD is still working on the specific objectives.  However, the broad structure for the one-year full-time course has been formulated with seven trades or clusters identified as listed out in Table 2 below.

Table 2

All the seven trades are not offered in all centres.  Some centres are offering only two trades to a maximum of five trades in some other centres.  Students, at registration time, should make their choice of trade they would wish to be enrolled.  They should opt for only one trade, out of 2 to 5 of the trades being offered by the centre.

Yet, another concern, I raised was that the trades offered are not girl-friendly.  And, I was right.  Out of seven trades, only two, namely Hospitality and Garment and Handicraft, are attractive to the girls.  As consequence, there are less girls admitted.  In some centres, the ratio of boys to girls is 7:3.

According to the curriculum structure for the Bright Up programme, the three modules for each trade are to be covered within the three school terms (or some 400 contact hours) – one module per term.  Alongside, some 200 contact hours (during the three terms) have been earmarked for basic literacy and numeracy. The students will be coming to the centre on a five-day week from 08 00 hours to 15 00 hours.  The sport activities, undertaken by the National Sports Council, will be carried out within the premises as well as outside the centre during two and a half days each week.

Upon completion of the course, the students will sit for an examination consisting of two papers – one practical with 70% of the mark and one written with 30% of the mark.  And, a minimum of 40% of the total mark is the requirement for the National Trade Certificate Level 2 (NC2) jointly awarded by the MES and the MITD.

As regard to the role of the National Social Inclusion Foundation (NSIF), nothing is clear.  It is understood that the NSIF operating under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity, is the Central Body for receiving and allocating public funds. It goes without saying that handling public funds demands accountability and transparency.  How will they operate within the Bright Up programme? What will be their contributions?  I could not get any information.

There is big investment of public funds in the Bright Up programme.  The ministry should ensure that the project is really effective producing the targeted outcome, that there is no massive dropouts and the successful students with the NC2 certificate find them enrolled for NC3 course at the MITD.

Rajendra Sewpersadsing