Education is the tool ‘par excellence’ that can be used to make or unmake the destiny of a country. Used in the right perspective, it can create a progressive, creative, innovative and happy people where human values would be at the core of all decisions.
It needs a single person to change the destiny of a country. That single person would be a visionary and perhaps a benevolent dictator whose vision would be to create a world of fair treatment, of generosity towards the less fortunate and devoid of inequity, where every single individual would be cared for. Education is the field where the vision would begin to take form.
Unfortunately, we have drifted far from that picture. States have abdicated their sovereignty and their identity and they have become subservient to central governments. Those governments have been reduced to a one man show with a leader is surrounded by a handful of cronies. Institutions have become the spokesmen and the rubber stamp of the party in power.
In a neo liberal political system government serves mainly the interest of the private sector. they invest massively in projects which benefit the suppliers. In many countries of the world the main beneficiaries during the Corona Virus pandemic are the conglomerates and the multinationals that are massively being subsidised from public money without the least being bothered about being accountable. On the one hand billions are being showered to them without having to give anything in return while on the other , it is being said that some beneficiaries of the informal sector which comprise the independent workers, small contractors, planters, the labourers, the masons and fishermen will be sued for apparently false information provided by them. This state of things has been beautifully and boldly voiced out by veteran linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky. He says:
One lesson (from the Covid19 pandemic) is that it’s another colossal failure of the neoliberal version of capitalism …
After the SARS epidemic in 2003, the scientists knew perfectly well that there were other pandemics coming,
probably of the corona virus variety. It would have been possible to prepare at that point.
How will the young generation react to the effects and after effects of this pandemic? The question will be answered in relation to the extent to which the population will be hammered and conditioned by the dictates of the corporate sector which is predominant in all spheres of our life.
Schools have closed down for nearly forty days now and we have not yet been able to find a solution alternative to the traditional schooling. We are still fumbling about the right approach to solving an educational issue. The authorities are requesting proposals from individual schools as to the way teaching must resume. Some are coming forward with fantasies of their own, in a bid to outwit others. It has become a competition of the most eccentric plans that the human mind can imagine. The most important stakeholders in the domain, namely, the learners and the parents are being totally ignored and considered as mere consumers of a product that others have designed for them.
Our school curriculum has been bequeathed from our colonial masters. The growth in the number of schools, both at primary and secondary levels, is attributable to the individuals and religious bodies. The State has always regulated the schools and has designed the learning programs to be implemented. There has been no substantial change from the initial curriculum obtained from the British Government. The content of disciplines has changed and increased in volume but the objectives have never been spelt out publicly. It has always been an academic exercise. The pedagogy is archaic, leaving little or no place for creativity, initiative, innovation or novelty. Parents and pupils have been left out as passive receivers.
Is not the present lockdown a god sent opportunity to question the whole system and go beyond the curriculum? Should we not break away from an ill designed legacy which no more responds to the needs of our society? Why are we sticking to a system which favours a massive drain of our best brains and skilled workers? In fact we have a system which pays money to encourage our best talents to settle in other countries. In a sense we are financing the training of labour of foreign countries.
The present confinement has been an opportunity for the strengthening of the family cell. The fundamentals of happy family life have resurrected. People are learning new skills in areas as diverse as cooking, bread making, music, singing dancing and writing. All these passions were kept at bay and suppressed. Is it not time to consider the real life aims of the population and incorporate them in our schools? Going beyond the curriculum would imply questioning many assumptions held to date. Among the many erroneous beliefs are the following: (i) that English should be the only medium of teaching and examining, (ii) that knowledge and skills cannot be acquired through Mauritian Creole, (iii) that all children cannot acquire academic skills and pass examinations, (iv) that the only way of holding examinations is the Cambridge SC and HSC, (v) that schools with Creole medium cannot exist side by side with English medium schools, (vi) that we should always relegate citizenship and moral education should not be the prime aim of learning, (vii) that the school curriculum should always respond to the needs of big corporations, and (ix) that we should not inculcate self confidence and self esteem into the mass.
The false assumption that some pupils cannot learn has been entrenched in our system far too long. The present system has marginalised and alienated a vast body of our children, mainly from the rural areas where most of the parents do not have the same level of education as their counterparts in the urban areas. The proposed nine year schooling with its academies and polytechnics makes the cleavage deeper.
The system is highly inequitable with its categories and tags based on an obtuse view of our people. The elitist philosophy has created a pyramid with a large base and a small apex. No consideration is given to the notion of excellence in learning where the child is allowed to excel in his favourite field.
.Coming back to the present situation where the behaviour of the corona virus is highly unpredictable it would be unwise and reckless to open schools and expose children to be incurably infected. The only alternative is online learning but not in the form it is being practiced. A significant number of families cannot afford laptops, tablets and smart phones. It is the responsibility of government to provide the necessary technological tools, the required software and free bandwidth. This should be accompanied by proper training provided by experts on the local TV channels. Teachers must also be equipped with laptops, free bandwidth, software and training in the extensive use of the said software. This will ensure a level playing field to all stake holders. The equipment provided to teachers will remain in their possession as a technological tool for pedagogy. It will provide the opportunity to teachers to get away with traditional teaching notes and chalk and blackboard methods.
The costs of providing such equipment will easily be absorbed from already existing budgeted finance and from savings made from non payment of transport money actually paid in the context of free transport. This measure will help reduce the existing inequality among the student population and will also mark a new era of pedagogical change.
The end word is that the pandemic will serve us positively by providing the opportunity to rethink our educational system and go beyond the curriculum. It should be a curriculum for social upliftment through the school. The aim of education would then not be to legitimise social inequality but create avenues for upward mobility of the population as a whole. No child should be left behind.
