Life in private school - Clavis

On 19^th July, we have visited one of the private schools called Clavis to organize an awareness and cleaning campaign. We guided students to segregate rubbish into plastic, paper and trash; also we introduced recycling conditions in our countries. Then we talked with some teachers from Clavis and received useful information about their work in this school.

At first, we interviewed a class teacher, who told us that they are facing challenges of everyday issues. However, psychologists at school and the SEN (Special Education Needs) Department are solving this problem. Through group reflections and one to one meetings, teachers and psychologists can notice if a pupil has problems.

In terms of disabled children, they aren’t separated from the other kids. All the pupils should fulfill the Ten Learner’s Profile, which includes being open minded, well-balanced and other characteristics that make them accepting ones that are considered stigmatized. Apart from being well educated, children in Clavis are encouraged to attend higher education.

After that we interviewed the teacher in charge of children’s rights, who has been working in Clavis for 16 years. He explained to us the Primary Year Program called ‘Who we are?’, which is divided into 6 units from January till December. The program starts from Year 1 to Year 6 and in Year 5 they have the Children´s Rights Unit. Therefore, the program develops with each year, according to the age. Children there try to use different skills to study this unit such as reading, writing and maths. In comparison with other public schools, children from Clavis don’t have problems with alcohol, drugs or domestic violence and they don’t find themselves in a continuos competition, which otherwise can lead to frustration, phenomenon often met in public schools. Moreover, public schools don’t have in their curriculum a separate unit about children’s rights and the teachers are not well trained in this matter.

 

To sum up, during our stay in Clavis we found kids who are really tolerant and who are in general enthusiastic about every new experience. All teachers in the school we spoke to were also really satisfied with their job there. But unfortunately we cannot forget that majority of children in Mauritius are going to public schools, where the reality is more harsh. What do you think about that? How can we improve the education system here?