With the new policy of the Ministry of Education whereby each Mauritian is offered the possibility of acquiring a third language, initiatives were taken this year to employ about 15 Malaysian teachers to teach Mandarin. They are paid US$800 per month and provided with accommodation.

The problem of inadequate staff to teach Mandarin has been around for some twenty years. About ten Mandarin teachers have been recruited since 1975, i.e. an average of one teacher every three years! Several solutions were tried in the past: namely, the recruitment of supply teachers paid at hourly rate (Rs 60/hr). With the acute shortage of Mandarin teachers in recent years, most of these supply teachers worked as full-time teachers. The only administrative barrier that prevents these supply teachers from becoming eligible to permanent employment are: age limit, and/or certificate recognition. These teachers are being ignored by the Ministry, which prefers to import expatriates to take care of Mandarin teaching. No doubt these expatriates have got the necessary qualification and age criteria set by the Public Service Commission. In what language would Mauritian students (especially those of Standard I) communicate with these newly recruited teachers ? who speak neither Creole nor French ? to learn the new language, when the majority of Mauritian students cannot express themselves properly in English in primary schools?

More recently, the Ministry provided pupils with special coaching sessions (cours de rattrapage). After working for more than one year, the casual teachers could have been enrolled on a special course and become permanent teachers. Why does the Honorable Minister not consider the recruitment of existing supply teachers on a permanent basis, since money is not a problem?

Now that the marks in Asian languages are to be accounted for CPE in 2005, would these pupils be ready to sit for the coming examination, with the unnecessary setback of teacher/pupil communication?

Can we ignore such scarce local competence, especially in Mandarin, in the Education reform exercise? We would be grateful if the Minister could reply to the above questions and take the necessary measures to address the problem of Mandarin teachers, so that our children could have the best conditions to master Mandarin, one of the most spoken languages.

A group of parents