Drawing inspiration from Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education (ITE), which integrates academic, vocational and life skills training, the prevocational education, hereunder proposed, ensures students gain in both technical competencies and employability skills. Singapore’s model demonstrates how early exposure to trade-specific training, combined with soft skills development, can prepare students for lifelong learning and career adaptability. 
Similarly, Australia’s Vocational Education and Training (VET) framework emphasizes workplace simulations and partnerships with industries to ensure practical learning aligns with labour market needs. Adopting such practices in Mauritius – through school-based workshops and industry collaborations, can provide students with relevant, hands-on experience in fields like mechanics, hospitality, metalwork, and other trades. These global examples underscore the need for a competency-driven curriculum, rooted in practical applications and industry partnerships, to support primary failures in Mauritius.
Therefore, as from their second year, it is proposed that the students get embarked on a prevocational education programme which will consist of :
75% – general education, made up of functional literacy (English & French), functional Maths, ICT, Science, Life Skills (managing emotions and self-controlling behaviour), Values and Citizenship education and
25% – prevocational education where the students will acquire the basic workshop skills including the security measures to be observed in workshops and an initiation in the different trades such as: Plumbing, Electricity, Mechanics, Woodwork, Metal and Aluminium Work, Agriculture, Garment and Handicraft, Hospitality, …
During the third and fourth years, the students will undertake a prevocational study in only two trades (from those listed above) their school will be offering. Those two years of prevocational studies will consist of 50% general education and 50% prevocational education in two trades. The Ministry of Education should ensure that all the secondary schools of the zone, admitting those primary failures, are not offering the same two trades and that most of the trades are being offered within the zone. If ever, their present school is not offering their preferred trades, the students will be allowed to move to another secondary school within the zone for the third and fourth years to undertake the two trades of their choice. The Ministry and the PSEA should monitor the mobility of the students. Those schools should make provision for workshops for the two trades they are offering along with the necessary tools and equipment for practical sessions. In addition, the schools should be staffed with fully qualified and trained educators for the two trades.
Once the required trained educators and fully-equipped workshops are made available in the secondary schools where the students are admitted, there is no need for students to move to the MITD centres once or twice per week. Past mistakes should not be repeated. That “dual mode” had been tried and failed as the students had been absenting themselves on those days and had led to many dropouts, especially among girls. Moreover, the MITD centres have a limited number of seats and were very far from the residence of the students; they had to travel long distances to attend to the MITD centres.
The content of the different trades should be more or less similar to that designed for the Bright Up programme or the National Certificate (NC) 2 programme by the MITD. Most of the teaching is to be done in workshops with demonstrations by the teachers and hands-on practice for the acquisition of the different skills by the students. 50% of the school time is dedicated to general education for consolidation of the literacy, numeracy and ICT skills as well as acquiring further life skills for proper behaviour in society.
Evaluation and Certification
A robust monitoring and evaluation framework is critical to ensure the success of any proposed project. It should focus on tracking student progress, assessing program outcomes, and making data-driven adjustments. However, there is a general fear in examinations among policy makers because of the high rate of failure. It is a fact because those students have big reading difficulties; how can they answer an exam question when the question is in written form and cannot be read and understood. Moreover, all the written exams are in English, and those students have not even reached the level of Grade 6 in English.
Therefore, it is proposed that the summative evaluations for those students will be practical and oral (in Kreol Mauricien). Moreover, the assessments will be competency-based, measuring the proficiency of the knowledge, skills and abilities acquired. Competency-based assessments offer a more comprehensive and relevant approach to evaluating students’ learning while focusing on real world applications rather than memorisation. This approach highlights whether learners can apply what they have learned in practical scenarios, ensuring that they meet pre-defined and standardised benchmarks. For the trades, the competency-based assessments will use real-world or simulated workplace scenarios to evaluate how the students apply their competencies in practice. It is imperative that the competency-based assessments are aligned with job-specific expectations and outcomes.
The summative evaluations – practical and oral – will be carried throughout the school years, computed as continuous assessments and will have a weighting of 50% for certification. The final summative evaluations in the general education (literacy and numeracy) and in the two trades will also be practical and oral and will have a weighting of 50%. A certificate of achievement will be awarded jointly by the MITD and the MES to all successful students. That certificate will be pitched at Level 2 on the National Qualifications Framework and it will be a pre-requisite for entry in an MITD centre for further training in NC2 and NC3 courses. Those who fail to get admission in an MITD centre, can have work placements in industries and other companies as apprentice. There is presently a great demand for apprentice and trainees for electricians, mechanics, plumbers and technicians for repair and maintenance of air-con, lifts, escalators. Nevertheless, a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) will greatly help to obtain valid information on requirements of industries in human resource particularly and the labour market in general.
Conclusion
Education for All – it sounds very nice. But it should also make provision for equal opportunity to all; it should ensure that there is an equal sharing of the education budget. All previous projects reveal a recurring pattern of insufficient alignment with student needs. Despite good intentions, those projects were hindered by limited capacity, lack of inclusivity, and inadequate resources. This paper highlights the urgent need for a comprehensive, inclusive, and practical solution—one that prioritizes vocational training, supportive pedagogy, and targeted teacher training. What has been proposed in this paper for the primary failures, requires much investment in terms of workshops fully equipped with necessary tools, teacher training (the profile of teachers for the primary failures has been amply elaborated), a monitoring team to ensure proper implementation of the project, curriculum and other support materials to help in the learning process and above all, incentives and motivation for the teachers to go that extra mile, so important for the success of the project.
Everything has a cost. Without investments, the project will definitely fail as all other projects for the primary failures. Presently, the new Foundation Programme replacing the Extended Programme appears to be like the same wine being put in new bottle. The only change is that the students will not sit for the NCE. In fact, it is proposed that there will be no exams, yet certification. How? Teaching still remain academic, mere lecture that goes beside students’ attention. Teachers cannot be trained within a week-workshop. The MIE has always been off the target when training the educators for the primary failures. The dual mode of having the students attending MITD centres once or twice per week, is just a replica of what had been tried and failed.
What is being proposed for the primary failures is very rational with valid reasons to justify the proposed project. The profile of the students, the mindset of the educators and the teaching status have been exposed. The destination and the pathway leading to that destination have been made clear enough. Bold decisions and concrete actions are now needed; not just lip service.
Moreover, the Ministry of Education will require the collaboration of other stakeholders. The Private Secondary Education Authority (PSEA) should help in implementing and monitoring the project in private secondary schools. The MITD should contribute in formulating the curriculum (course content) for the prevocational education; it should advise in the setting up of the different workshops, it should help in the training of the educators for the teaching of the trades and it should design the oral and practical assessments for certification. The MIE should run a dedicated course for the teachers empowering them with techniques and skills to handle students with acute behaviour problems, with the appropriate teaching strategies for students with big learning difficulties and with proper attitude to accept the students as they are. The assistance of the MES will be needed for the final summative evaluations and certification.
To conclude, the proposed project should set the following benchmarks for its success:
(i) Short-Term Goals: 80% of students achieving basic literacy and numeracy by the end of Year 1 and a 15% pass rate for PSAC on the second trial, based on the 2013 experiment.
(ii) Medium-Term Goals: 90% of students demonstrating competency in at least one vocational trade by the end of Year 4 and a 10% increase in apprenticeship placements in industries like construction, mechanics, and hospitality within two years of programme implementation.
(iii) Long-Term Goals: A 20% reduction in youth unemployment within five years and increased enrollment in MITD centres or polytechnics for advanced vocational training.
This series of press articles makes up a comprehensive paper which can be considered as a free consultancy report, however, not coming from recognised authorities like the World Bank or international educational bodies. Nevertheless, the proposed project is very objective, rational and achievable; c’est pas la mer à boire! It only needs the willingness and determination on the part of the authority and policy makers. Now, it is up to the Ministry of Education to play the game along with the different stakeholders.
Rajendra Sewpersadsing
