Pauline Etienne
18 January 2008
Port Louis — Years pass by and look alike. Although the government has made it clear that it would not go back on its decision this time, the national platform against the abolition of subsidies for School Certificate (SC) and Higher School Certificate (HSC) examination fees want to go further than last year. Its members have confirmed that they will take to the streets on 22nd February to fight this issue.
However, it seems all stakeholders of this platform - made of trade unions, opposition parties and non-government organisations - cannot agree on the form the subsidy system should take. The president of the Union of Private Secondary Education Employees, Yahya Paraouty, who also chairs the platform, wants a return to the former system where all households paid only 50% of the exam fees while there was total exemption for those earning less than Rs 7,500.
The government has been trying to implement a new system where families earning less than Rs 7,500 would be totally exempted from exam fees, households with a revenue of Rs 7,500 to 10,000 and with two children sitting for the exams would pay only 50% of the fees; all the others would pay the whole amount. "We can't even understand why the government chose the upper limit of Rs 7,500. It does not mean anything to us and Rs 7,500 is nothing with the rising cost of living," complains the chairperson of the platform. "With this system, only 2,000 students will benefit from subsidies. What about the 28,000 ones left?".
For him, raising this limit is useless, as it's hard to fix one. "Even families considered as well-off find themselves with little money to spare after paying their loans and expenses. The government says it can't afford to pay but it was the one to mention the Rs 79 million as the total amount of the subsidies. I don't think it is a lot of investment for such an important issue as education," comments Yahya Paraouty.
Tulsiraj Benydin of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, has reiterated his support to the platform. "With the increasing cost of living, I can't see how we can marginalize people and implement a targeting policy. Social justice should be for everyone. The minister of Finance keeps saying that the economic situation is improving and that growth is on the rise Then this should be equally redistributed. We have free transport. Why not subsidies on exams."
"Unacceptable revenue ceiling"
He points at the contradictions in government policies and takes the universal pension as example. "They were the ones to re-introduce it. Then why do they want to abolish subsidies on exam fees. Education is one of the most important sectors and investment is really important there."
Although the Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) agrees on the unfairness of the reform, it recommends a softer approach than the unions. Francois Labelle , who represents the opposition party on the platform finds "it unacceptable that the revenue ceiling should be as low as Rs 7,500"; the MMM is asking that this top limit be raised to Rs 25,000 - so that all those earning less than Rs 25,000 can be fully exempted.
The minister of Education, Dharam Gokhool, recently called upon trade unions to be responsible and not to go ahead with their protests.
The government gave in to half of their recriminations last year and maintained an exemption of 25 % - instead of the traditional 50 %. But it had warned that the new measures would be effective as from this year However, it seems that the unions are not so ready to give in!
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