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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2282/183
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| Title: | Educational policies, reforms and the role of teachers unions in Mauritius |
| Authors: | Hollup, Oddvar |
| Issue Date: | 2004 |
| Abstract: | This study has basically two major concerns; - describe and assess the role of the Teachers
Unions, in particular the Government Teachers Union (GTU), regarding their conditions of
service and their impact on educational policies and reforms. The report gives an outline of
the educational system in Mauritius and its socio-cultural background, before it sets out to
discuss the role of the most important trade union (GTU) within the primary education sector.
Although Mauritius has achieved commendable success in providing universal access to basic
education through very high enrolment rates and gender equality in education at primary and
secondary level through its well-established education system, many sources of educational
inequalities exist regarding educational inputs, processes and outcomes, and when meeting
basic learning needs and assuring minimum level of competencies for all. The performance in
learning cannot be properly understood unless taking into account the difficult and complex
language situation that exists in Mauritius. It should be noted that for the great majority of the
children, the language of learning and teaching was not their mother tongue. This is related to
the fact that most children speak Kreol, a lingua franca, which is not a written language, while
most teaching and learning is related to two ‘foreign languages’ such as French and English.
There is also a good number of children in rural areas whose mother tongue is Hindi or rather
Bhojpuri, an oral dialect of the former, who may be disadvantaged towards the means of
instruction in primary schools that would influence learning achievements. One can just
imagine what sort of difficulties these children encounter when faced with the challenge of
learning two ‘foreign’ languages as from the age of five when they commence primary
school. Another important findings which is far from new knowledge is that socio-economic
status of the child’s family has a very strong impact on achievement at school. This confirm
that parental education level and parents’ opinion about education are decisive factors
affecting performance of the children at school. |
| Keywords: | Mauritius
Educational system
Trade unions
Social inequalities
Educational reforms
Teachers |
| Publisher: | Høgskolen i Telemark |
| Document type: | Report |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2282/183 |
| Appears in Collections: | HiT skrift
Institutt for sosialfag
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