Pearlishka Burrun
What is education?
Education in a formal description in Mauritius would be explained and understood as learning by heart, working hard in schools and tuition to excel in academic exams.
Moreover, this is exactly what the education sector in Mauritius is continuously promoting during some of their recent press conferences. Nevertheless, they also talk about failures and to remedy the situation, as per their statistics and professionalism they assume that promoting a student who did not pass in Mathematics and French will have two years to catch up before sitting for the SC examinations by Cambridge.
First, one should be able to understand that we are all humans, and we all have different qualities and different ways of doing and understanding certain things. In the academic field, some of us grab certain lessons quickly whereas some may need deeper explanation concerning the subject. We should also bear in mind that failure is not something that one should be ashamed of, but it should be understood as someone’s ‘’FIRST ATTEMPT IN LEARNING.’’
However, sadly, the education system in Mauritius is being misused by our professionals. We cannot expect a student who didn’t pass in French or Maths to be able to score better marks whilst being in SC. If the student does not have the basic information about the subject, how will he/she be able to catch up and learn something new in an upper standard? Why should we make students think they are not worth it? It’s just that the basic teaching should be done properly for students to apply them in upper grades. “Education is not about loading the child’s mind with information, but about making it capable of razor-sharp perception, capable of knowing life in its full depth and dimension.“ – Sadhguru.
Additionally, a high-profile person stated that even though some students cannot do Maths and French they should be promoted to Grade 10 otherwise this may lead to a disastrous situation where youngsters decide to leave school. Indeed, this will surely happen over the years if the education system does not change for the betterment of Mauritian kids. Youngsters as from now itself don’t want to attend classes in many state schools due to the lack of professionalism of certified teachers and their managements.
In many state schools, students are being neglected as soon as they fail to understand a topic which has been done in a rush by the teacher. There has also been constant change in syllabus where topics of upper grades are being added to lower grades syllabuses’ and vice versa. Here we should analyse and understand the psychological part while teaching youngsters. We should take into consideration that it is now that their brains are developing and chapters in Maths and other subjects should be taught to them accordingly.
Sadly, in some state schools, youngsters are being taught to always compete against each other and everything should be learnt by heart. Still, no matter what happens Maths will always be something that one should have a prior knowledge of as it is used everywhere in whichever field someone chooses to work. Secondly, we should encourage youngsters as from lower grades to find a pleasure in learning French. This will be beneficial for them in terms of communications nationally and internationally. “Teaching should not be a profession – it must be a passion. Only then can education move from imposition of facts to exploration of truth.” – Sadhguru.
Indeed, to be able to make it a success, professionals in the educational field should maybe observe, analyse, and try to find some pleasant ways to make youngsters learn daily. It’s of no use of abusing them verbally as this will only lead to a sort of emotional damage to them. ‘’EXPERIENCES GAINED IN TWO SCHOOLS UNDER MY CONTROL HAS TAUGHT ME THAT PUNISHMENT DOES NOT PURIFY IN ANYTHING, IT HARDENS CHILDREN.’’– M. K GANDHI. Maybe trying to treat them as your own will solve part of the issue. [End of part2)