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Mauritius: Pupils' Confidence Returns after Meeting with MES Director
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L'Express (Port Louis)
31 August 2007
Posted to the web 31 August 2007
Pauline Etienne
Port Louis
Rajini Ramchurn can't hold back her tears. She has come a long way from Mahebourg with her son, Narvish, 17 years old, to get his revised School Certificate (SC) results.
The anger she felt at first when she received the letter from the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate (MES) to inform her son that his results in French had been revised upwards gave way to happiness soon afterwards. Narvish Ramchurn received his SC certificate from the hands of the MES director, Lucien Finette, and will be reimbursed at least part of his exam fees for this year.
The MES will be receiving the 234 pupils whose results were incorrect because of the mistakes committed by the MES administration when they transferred data to Cambridge throughout the day. Lucien Finette will seize this opportunity to meet all the pupils whose incorrect results had more serious consequences on their future. And he is paying special attention to those who had to resit the Form V exams this year because of their results in French. "I feel I am responsible for all these pupils and I need to see how we can help them. This is why I am offering to reimburse them," said the MES director.
Rajini and Narvish are among those who are feeling very relieved. "My husband works in a factory and I do not work so it was hard for us to pay the exam fees. We are relieved to know that the MES will pay us back - at least in part," said Rajini. When Narvish saw the letter, he was quite "angry" because he felt he had "lost one year". However, he insists on sitting for his SC exams again this year because "I have already been working so hard since the beginning of the year that I feel I can get better results than last year. In any case, it is already August so I'd better sit again for the SC exams," he commented.
Even if the MES director accepts all responsibility for the error and insists that such "stupid mistakes should never occur again", he nevertheless refused to speak of a "loss of one year". Many of those pupils would have had borderline results and it cannot be so bad for them to have an additional year to assimilate all necessary knowledge and more maturity to succeed in their exams afterwards.
Another "unfortunate candidate", Govind Luchuman, came out from the director's office with a broad smile. Obviously, he is far less stressed now than when he arrived at the MES - and he has good reasons for this. His grade 9 in French has been improved to an 8, which enables him to obtain his full SC certificate. He had five credits in the other subjects but had failed his SC exam because of his results in French.
Govind is not sure yet whether he will continue his studies up to Form VI and his uncle, who came with him, finds it a pity that his parents have had to spend more money on private tuition this year when it could have been avoided. "He might have chosen the technical field at the Industrial and Vocational Training Board at the beginning of the year if he had known he had obtained his SC," he regrets. However, as soon as they both came out of the office, their anger and stress seemed to have change into relief and satisfaction.
"We made a mistake and there is no shame in apologising for it. We should not have so much pride in such circumstances. I feel parents are relieved to see that we admit our mistakes. But I am also taking this opportunity to make sure these pupils' confidence has not been weakened and to offer them some support," said Lucien Finette.
Juding by the smiles on their faces, both parents and pupils are satisfied with the apologies and the offer of help by the MES. Govind definitely looks invigorated by the meeting while Narvish is more confident that he will be able to achieve his dream Going to university and becoming a heart specialist
Fact-finding committee discussed by cabinet today
The minister of Education, Dharam Gokhool, should make a proposal for the setting up of a fact-finding committee to shed some light on the mistakes made by the MES. Lucien Finette, who was the first to suggest that such a committee be implemented, "can't understand how in 2007, we are still not able to transfer data. Such errors are completely stupid and should be avoided in the future".
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Until the official setting up of the fact-finding committee, the MES director has already made sure that the board's decisions have been respected including the sealing of computers and correspondence with Cambridge as well as a complete audit of the files transferred.
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