Patrick Hilbert
8 July 2008
Port Louis — The diagnostic assessment introduced in the second term is being followed-up. The ministry of Education is coming with a plan for Standard III under-achievers as from the 3rd term. Its aim is to raise their level.
Pupils from fifty out of the 300 and so primary schools are concerned. Most schools are ZEP schools as in Roche-Bois here.
For the first time, remedial education will enter Standard III classrooms. Next term, low performers will receive special attention. A directive issued on 26th June by the ministry of Education stipulates that teachers will have to prepare an implementation plan for remedial teaching.
This time teachers are not going to be left on their own, they'll have the support of a pedagogical team at school level that will give a helping hand and do the follow-up. This team consists of a primary school inspector, the head teacher, the deputy head teacher, a mentor, a teacher of upper primary, a teacher of lower primary and an Asian language teacher.
The ministry is also in the process of recruiting remedial teachers, mostly retired educators, to help the weakest to get out of their troubles. This team of professionals will see to it that children who lag behind get the proper attention to take them up to the proper level.
"Thanks to the diagnostic assessment we did during the second term, the ministry has been able to pinpoint those who have learning disabilities. Now we will have to concentrate on those who have the most serious problems", explains a high official from the ministry of Education.
More precise inside view
However, the exercise didn't start this year. Last year, the ministry asked Std II students to fill in a form and do some simple exercises. The objective was to identify those who had behavior or other problems and to act upon this.
One year later, those pupils have reached Std III and the combination of this form with the diagnostic assessment has made it possible for the ministry to better identify those who are most in need of help. All the data from the diagnostic assessment have, however, not been compiled yet.
The ministry is still analyzing a certain number of facts that will give it an even more precise inside view of the progress made by Std III pupils since they joined primary school. Last year's evaluation revealed that children from fifty out of more then 300 primary schools had more specific problems than the others.
Some concern arises about the teacher's specific role. Will he/she have enough time to pay special care to those in need and who might need a different approach or will the remedial teacher take them in charge? What will be the specific role of the pedagogical team?
All those questions must be answered soon, especially because the ministry hasn't really communicates on this subject yet. "The ministry wants to implement a form of remedial education, but until now, even the inspectors are not aware of this project.
We haven't been invited to a meeting with the establishment yet, and we're waiting to join them to know a little bit more about this", says Reeza Dowlut, president of the Primary School Inspectors' Union.
One thing is for sure; the project has aroused a lot of interest from the education sector. And it is generally welcomed. "Something surely has to be done and remedial education is a solution to help those in need. Something has to be done about low performers", adds Reeza Dowlut.
Vinod Seegum, president of the Government Teachers' Union (GTU), expresses the same views and is glad that the ministry is finally coming up with concrete actions. "We're quite positive about such initiatives. As a responsible trade union, we cannot oppose a project that wants to help reduce the failure rate at primary school level even though we would like to have a better idea about what the ministry intends to do exactly."
About 35% children fail each year at the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) level.
Remedial education at different stages is seen as a solution to bring down the huge number of failures.
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