An overview of the education system in Mauritius

During our interview at the Ministry of Education, we were surprised to find out that the education in Mauritius is free up to 20 years and compulsory for children with the age between 5 and 16 years. The Government also gives the opportunity to children under 5 years to have access to pre-primary education, but the reality is that most of parents don’t take advantage of this opportunity. Then, inevitably these children start to accumulate a lot of deficits. 

Due to the fact that there is a high competition between pupils in order to enter the best public secondary schools after the CPE (Certificate of Primary Education) one of the biggest problems of the education system appears: inequity. Children with a social economical background and solid education are more likely to perform better than the ones with a poorer background.

To compensate this, the Ministry of Education created a program for Standard 1 called “Bridging the gap”. This program offers activities in order that each child is able to bridge the gap, either they are coming from rich or poor families. With these activities they want to create equalization in the system. Moreover, in order to favor the poor ones, private tuition is now illegal for Standard 1 until 4 of primary school. 

Another major problem that the ministry faces is the high rate of failure. Over the last years, 30 % of the pupils failed the CPE (Certificate of Primary Education) and out of 100 children entering primary school only 27 % are coming out with A-Levels.

The lack of communication between teachers and pupils is also a consequence of overcrowded classrooms. The ratio is 1 teacher to 30/35, maximum 40 children. The deficit in learning is especially registered amongst children from low SES (Social Economic Status). For this reason, the Ministry has embarked in many pre-poor and pro-educational strategies like providing a grant of 200 Rupees to the pre-primary school for every child enrolled there. In comparison to public schools, the private ones have a major advantage: they can expel a child. In public schools this is not possible. Furthermore the private schools can afford to have small classes and more qualified teachers (maximum 25 pupils per classroom). Another issue that rises especially in public schools is that they do not have any inspections to control the quality of the lessons and teachers.In secondary school there is a major problem of absenteeisms. The Ministry has also built a program called ZEP (Zone d´ÉducationPrioritaire) which offers a special package and food to attract children from poor areas to come to school. 

Even though there is a great insufficiency in the system, nowadays more and more students are attending university. The Gross enrolment at university level was 26 % five years ago. Today it is 46 % and it is expected that the percentage will increase to 72 % over the next few years (approximately one university graduate per family). 

Despite all these facts, we found out that the government gives 60 scholarships to the best students in Mauritius in order to continue their degrees at top universities in the world, fact that you cannot find anywhere in Europe. The tradeoff is that they have to come back to Mauritius and work for at least 2 years in the public sector but in reality, the majority of laureates do not come back.

Inclusive education embraces children with special needs (gifted, talented and handicapped children excluding major mentally challenged kids). The teachers that are dealing with these kids receive a special training from the MIE (Mauritius Institute of Education). So, Government is encouraging more and more parents to send their children with disabilities to schools. The question is, if it is possible and necessary to have a one-size-fit-all-type of education for everyone.

To end, the officials would like to see a change in mindsets, more values creeping into their schools, people achieving things, more innovations and more students interested in Sciences.

What do you think about the education system in Mauritius? Share your ideas with us!