The Zone d?Education Prioritaire (ZEP) has now been launched and schools have been clustered. Those responsible for the scheme must be congratulated and admired for their dedication to education and to the eradication of poverty. The philosophy appears to be one of cooperation: the harnessing of teaching expertise, parental influence and social regeneration. This is indeed laudable but at the core of this may lie a hidden agenda of targeting poorly performing schools. The greatest concern is the series of financial incentives built in the scheme for rewarding teachers, schools and clusters. Do headteachers, teachers and schools need additional financial rewards to do what they are supposed to be doing anyway? Do we need financial gratification to give a little more of ourselves to humanity? To our children? To the future of our island? Is the clustering of schools giving a label to groups of schools and encouraging stigma and stereotyping? Would people be happy for their children to be officially stamped as disadvantaged children? Will parents avoid sending their children to schools labelled disadvantaged, like those suffering from leprosy? Would children leaving a ZEP school find a job or would they face discrimination on the job market? Could ZEP become a centre of excellence and a role model of how education should be managed? This paper is intended to explore some of these questions and to raise the level of awareness of those administering ZEP scheme so that our children are safeguarded and not stereotyped.

The Normal Process of Education

Educating a child is a multiagency effort. Modern education demands the collaboration of the following:

The child as a thinking individual

The parents and family environment as equal participants who show a high level of interest in the child?s learning and progress

Imaginative teachers moving from a sage on stage to a guide on the side

Peer groups to enhance cooperative and reflective learning

Social institutions such as the police, sports centres, health centres or business agencies helping to ground what is taught in schools in the reality of social situations.

The child is the centre of all activities and it was fantastic to see a couple of children featured on a Wednesday ZEP discussion programme on MBC. Learning is a neural development or ?synaptic change?, as some scientists claim. The more active a child is and the more is he brought into the main focus of the process of learning, the greater the neural connections and change. Thus, ZEP must be applauded for strengthening this fundamental principle. On the other hand, all schools and all educational strategies must carry this principle forward valiantly and boldly. The relentless pursuit of education excellence is the supportive involvement of the child in every possible way. This is what makes the child realise that the process is about his development, his expansion and his maturity. Education is not about the centrality of teachers in the classroom or group process. It is about enabling the child to dominate the process and be acknowledged as the budding, sprouting and evolving individual. It is then and only then that the child will make sense of all efforts around him and realise that he matters. The child will then be motivated to learn, to be active and to be an independent thinker. This normal process must be started at the earliest opportunity at home, in the kindergarten, in the school and in the college.

Parents, teachers and administrators who overlook the child and forge ahead, planning on behalf of the child without his involvement, are mistaken, are seriously flawed and educationally defective. The child must be valued right from the beginning, from the very foundation and from his entering this learning and knowledge-focused world. This is where parents and family environment become critical partners by valuing the child; reinforcing the good characteristics and making him feel that it is good to be part of a family with values. All parents know that the instilling of values is a challenging experience and needs sacrifice. Charity has to begin at home and parents have to sacrifice to give more attention to the needs of the family instead of long hours of work and chasing the rupees. Increasing the bank balance does not and will not ensure a secure family unit but could lead to a dysfunctional one. Parents have to ask: ?Are we moving forward with our family or ahead of our family?? The role of parents is well documented in education literature. It shows that ?interested parents? induce, motivate and inspire the child. Parents often wonder : ?Qui mo besoin faire comme ène parent pour mo zenfant faire bien dans lécole?? Normal education process requires parents to:

Duties of parents

Prepare zenfant le matin avec un bain et petit déjeuner qui riche en glucose. La cervelle vivre lors glucose et ène bon petit déjeuner aide zenfant concentrer

Besoin ena communication entre zenfant et parents. Sa veut dire parents besoin faire le temps pour assize avec zenfant pour cause a propos l?école

Lere cause avec zenfant, parent besoin laisse zenfant-la cause plus et parent besoin ecouter

Besoin prend l?idee zenfant en consideration et prend action. Si zenfant la dire qui li ena ene difficulter, parent besoin prend action pour resoude sa probleme-là.

Parent besoin donne conseille et guide zenfant mais pas blame zenfant. Zenfant blamer perdit confiance vite en zotte meme.

Zenfant besoin securiter emotionellement. Zenfant pas besoin poche plein avec l?argent mais zenfant besoin conné qui so parent content li et pou aide li.

Dans ene famille, maman et papa besoin donne zenfant meme message. Si papa dire A, et maman dire B, sa derange zenfant mentalment. Lere ena conflict dans la case, zenfant souffert, surtout banne fille.

Teachers have a very important role in facilitating learning but they must not hog the stage. They must be more like signposts of sources of knowledge than being the sage on stage. The psychology of teaching compels teachers to learn more about their pupils and be in tune with the latter?s background, style of thinking and learning. Thus, teaching is not about giving information or facts to the pupils but communicating in a manner that enables connections and reflections to take place. Learning does not take place until new information makes connections with previous experience. Thus, the teacher creates and searches for educational tools that enable the connections to take place and electrify the ?synaptic change?. That is the true role of the teacher.

Peers and social institutions have a pivotal role in promoting and grounding teaching in real life situations. Learning is accelerated when what is learnt is made relevant to day-to-day situations. This demands that teachers and parents extend the learning into industries and the family unit, thus achieving the modern integrated form of learning instead of chunking.

The ZEP Method of Learning

From the MBC programme, it was not clear what the ZEP teachers would be doing differently. It appears that either the ZEP representative was not able to articulate it or the interviewer was not able to extract and expose the real difference between normal teaching and ZEP method. However, three issues came across:

ZEP is about pupils who may have consistently obtained poor marks over a certain period and may need remedial teaching

ZEP is also about pupils who are from social and economic disadvantaged background and may have poor parents

ZEP will reward teachers and schools for taking care of ?disadvantaged? children and for involving them in sports and other activities.

Remedial teaching is a highly skilled activity. Thus the clusters identified must have highly trained teachers in remedial education. Creative remedial education is essentially based on spending more time with pupils and this requires:

Smaller class comprising of twelve to fifteen pupils. Will the Heads of the clusters have the autonomy and extra resources to reduce the size of the class? No mention has been made of this fundamental and critical component. This is what the clusters should demand from the Minister if the pupils are to benefit and progress. The emphasis must not be on poverty and poor performance but class size.

An integrated curriculum that will embrace the socio-economic backgrounds and parental influence of the pupils. This complex strategy must be at the forefront of ZEP and the prerequisite is small teaching groups.

Cooperative and reflective teaching techniques are at the centre of promoting group, supportive and critical thinking. This means that ZEP teachers must have highly refined skills in group building, instigating reflective learning, behavioural modification and creative thinking. This is more than just involving pupils in extra-curricular activities. It is about expert group process management, confidence building and empowering ?less able? pupils to become more active participants.

The ZEP cycle of learning is strengthened by active parental support and interest in the development of policies and procedures of learning strategies. Thus, it is not enough to have the parents on ?ringe activities? but they should be involved in a frank analysis of school reports, effectiveness of teaching resources and techniques and their suitability to the pupils? style of learning and thinking. Social institutions must play their part by providing opportunities and access so that the learning and behavioural changes are made relevant in the real world of work and life. This is where ZEP can make substantial contribution to the management of modern lifelong learning.

A Word of Caution

The intention of ZEP is sound but if it is not managed properly, it can condemn pupils to a life of stigma and prejudice. Those progressing through ZEP may be classed as a ?mentally weaker? brand of citizens, and colleges and employers may latch on to this while appointing staff. Would colleges prefer to have pupils who have not been through ZEP? Would they give priority to pupils coming through the ZEP route? Could they discriminate against ZEP pupils? Such discrimination is a potential hazard of ZEP and every step must be taken to ensure the ZEP clusters do not become labelled as the ?mentally defective? or the ?poverty? group. Similarly, parents may wish to avoid ZEP because of potential stereotyping.

The financial incentives of ZEP teachers and schools are of grave concern. It may attract inappropriate teachers with other motives and pupils may not feature in their priorities. Self-interest and financial motives are hazardous and it is a mistake to move ZEP forward with financial reward.

Conclusion

ZEP approach should be normalised in all schools and there should not be identified clusters. This is segregation and it is educationally and socially not a sound principle. Education is about freeing people not shackling them with a ZEP label. A strategic rethinking of the approach is critical. Schools should strengthen the normal process of education and not invent ?defective? education. Teachers must be highly skilled to help pupils, and just employing ?ordinary? teachers and expecting them to apply ZEP principles could be problematic. Let?s hope the ZEP clusters do well for the sake of the pupils.

Taleb Durgahee