Port Louis — "Only the silliest do not change their minds," says the proverb. When you've had a fight with someone close and realise you were the one at fault, the most intelligent thing to do is to call him/her and admit your error, isn't it? There is no feeling as silly as pride - but we humans have difficulty dealing with it. In such a case, what is involved is an important friendship or love relationship or one with any other close relation. But what happens when it is the future of generations of children that is at stake ? The answer is clear: playing with the lives of thousands of kids just to keep an electoral promise is just not acceptable

The government is going through hard times with its education reform. After Dharam Gokhool announced that the "rat race" would be on again - even if this is not the exact term he used, the perception is the same: children will have to compete to obtain a seat in the best schools and proudly form part of the Mauritian elite - the government could not have expected such virulent protest from the population. But it has come as a cry from the heart from all quarters.

Faced with such criticisms, the prime minister must have realised that the reform cannot be implemented in such difficult circumstances. If so many people are against it, there must be good reasons Not only are people castigating the reform but those people have solid arguments to support their views - which minister Gokhool obviously does not have. When he was asked for more details about the new admission procedures, he could not answer in a clear way. And on the days after his "big announcement" he did not want to discuss the matter. He was quietly amending the regulations of the Mauritius Examination Syndicate to start his reform - without listening to what the people concerned were saying.

Even after the PM declared that the government was taking time to see how the reform could be done in a better - and more consensual way - the minister did not come down from his pedestal. He remains in his ivory tower, perhaps hoping that people will get tired of arguing and give in to him.

Such a reaction is unwelcome in the present circumstances. The minister seems to deliberately ignore the criticisms and suggestions of the people concerned by the welfare of 11 year-olds - parents, pedagogues, teachers. In doing so, he is even snubbing institutions such as the United Nations committee for children's rights or the Ombudsperson for children, two organisations among others whose first goal is to ensure the welfare of children.

But, if he is also snubbing his own leader and prime minister, then I'm afraid there are no great hopes for his future. Other ministers, who have had big ideas about reform, have faced the axe of an irate public opinion before him

Even if he is convinced that his decision is the right one, minister Gokhool should at least take time to discuss the issue with the stakeholders. The latter have the feeling that they have been bypassed and that their opinions and experience are being discarded without any consideration.

And finally it is not because a promise was made during the electoral campaign that it should be implemented as is, thus sacrificing the future of the majority of the children of this country for the good of a few already privileged by nature. If the government decided to retract and explained its decision to the people, the latter would certainly understand that some issues have more far-reaching consequences than merely catching votes.