Blog: Shooting Arrows from a safe Ambush

S.K.M's article 'A sick limb of a weak body' published in Le Matinal of Friday 9 September 2011, has prompted me to react to the many incongruities which struck my attention.

S.K.M as an ex-Director of Quality Assurance and Curriculum of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources is, beyond reasonable doubt, known for his mastery of the language of Shakespeare. However, that doesn't make of him a flawless person.

S.K.M has occupied a senior and privileged position at the M.O.E for many years. He has had the opportunity on innumerable occasions to make tangible proposals and long lasting innovations pertaining to the pedagogical and administrative aspects of Pre-Vocational Education.

As an ex-Director of the Ministry who once occupied a leading position in the Management of the Pre-Vocational Education, he should have known that the MMM never invented the Pre-Vocational stream. It was simply revamped and given a new orientation by S.Obeegadoo, the then Education Minister in the MMM government. Any well informed person on Educational matters should know that the Pre-Vocational project was originally created in the 1990's by the MSM Government and was run by the then IVTB in the different Pre-Vocational Training Centres located around Mauritius, until it was taken over by the Technical School Management Trust Fund and later by the Ministry of Education.

It is also misleading to state that the Pre-Vocational Stream was sheltered in State Secondary Schools together with Form I mainstream students. This was not so as they had classes of their own, teachers of their own, but they cohabitated within the same precinct and rubbed shoulders only during recesses and lunch times. As a pedagogical expert he should have known that the idea behind this manoeuvre was to give them a chance to nurse their bruised self-esteem.

What SKM has not understood is that the problem lies at the implementation level. SKM did not state anything new when he said that pedagogy would be the most important area of reform in the PVE stream. He should have known that learning by doing (ie) activity-based teaching /learning as a strategy was proposed by a grand lady who is now enjoying a well deserved and peaceful retirement. But as all genuine educationists know, teachers are always resistant to changes and feel more comfortable with their chalk and talk method. Most primary school and Medco teachers who handle PVE classes are square pegs in round holes, but ironically, they are not to be blamed for this.

S.K.M contradicts himself when he says that the MIE lecturers who spend their time teaching teachers are not apt to write the PVE curriculum. If I drag this logic of his a bit further, I find that he himself is not apt to pronounce on PVE matters because he has never ever taught in a PVE class.

When S.K.M says that the "curriculum was prepared by amateurish writers catapulted to the status of Inspectors", he adopts an inimical attitude towards the few PVE Inspectors who had the arduous task of managing the pedagogical aspects of the implementation of the PVE Curriculum throughout all the State and Private Secondary Schools of Mauritius.

S.K.M must also be aware of the fact that different stakeholders such as representatives of the BEC, the MIE and teachers participated in the writing of the PVE Curriculum. So it is unfair to qualify the curriculum writers as amateurish.

PVE Inspectors did not function in a vacuum. They were accountable to the Directors of the Ministry, who laid down the guiding principles, which had to be followed. When the new PVE project was launched the PVE team started from a clean slate and in spite of all the constraints they faced, they managed to produce the blue curriculum guidelines book which has on numerous occasions been a source of inspiration to many.

Most probably, he was also unaware of the fact that the so-called amateurish writers catapulted to the status of Inspectors were in fact experienced officers who had served for more than 15 years in the Pre-Vocational Sector as Heads of the Pre-Vocational Centres. Being the most experienced on the market at that time, wasn't it fair, logical and legitimate for them to be appointed PVE Inspectors?

S.K.M as an ex-senior officer of the Ministry knows quite well the administrative and bureaucratic procedures involved whenever policies are implemented. Shooting arrows from a hidden ambush is an easy way of bringing other people into disrepute.

S.K.M should understand that it is not an easy job to teach a bunch of neglected and ill-loved 25 illiterate young kids in an alien environment. Very often they are brought to task by the administration of the school and their peers from the mainstream and ultimately become the scapegoats for all the miseries of the school.

A dismayed, ex-admirer of S.K.M.