It is quite traditional to equate language with culture, although this should not necessarily be the case. Mauritius is one of the countries where immigrants have come over with their various languages. Their staunch belief is that the maintenance of their languages would entail the perpetuation of their cultures. A language is usually the vehicle for the propagation of the culture that is garbed within that language. Hence belivers in that notion begin to organise places of meeting like ?baitkas? for the teaching of Hindi, ?madrassas? or ?maktabs? for the teaching of Urdu and Chinese schools for the teaching of Mandarin, and so on. The work of spreading oriental languages and cultures went on side by side with the teaching of European languages like English and French in the regular schools.

As time went on, the teaching of oriental languages began to acquire a higher status in regular schools. Teachers began to be recruited in the 1950s and trained for the purpose of teaching oriental languages. Today we have reached a stage where there is claim, and legitimately so, that the level of oriental languages has reached the point where they can be considered at a level equal to English and French. Hence they have acquired the same importance as other established examinable subjects taught at schools, and can therefore be taken as a subject for examination.

<B>Language and Culture</B>

An inbuilt association between language and culture has taken place within the minds of people. A multiplicity of well-rooted associations have emerged in view of the plurality of the Mauritian nation. The survival of a culture means the preservation of the identity of the group concerned. Language being the vehicle for culture, it has to be preserved at all costs. Language should be at the forefront of any educational venture. Well, this is the state of the present situation.

<B>Oriental languages as examinable subjects</B>

At first oriental languages were considered purely as vehicles for propagation of cultures, taught in either evening classes or early morning classes. Evolution being bound to develop in all human venture, we can imagine the expected progress. Today, we have reached the stage where different ethnic groups demand that oriental languages should become examinable subjects as any other at Cambridge level as well as primary school examinations. The Education Regulations 1957 are to be amended, as already decided by the Council of Ministers, in order to include oriental languages for ranking purposes at the Certificate of Primary Education examination as from this year. This proposal is realisable, since the existing oriental languages taught at our primary schools do possess an orthography ? i.e. they exist as written languages.

<B>The case of Kreol</B>

One has to realise that Kreol as a language does not belong to any ethnic group. It is a spoken language, the lingua franca of all, or almost all Mauritians. According to statistics, as pointed out by J.C. de l?Estrac, 800,000 Mauritians are speakers of Kreol. The use of Kreol or Morisien as Dev Virahsawmy would put it, as medium of instruction, is already practically made in so many of our teaching situations. If the proposal is that only Kreol be used as medium of instruction, this is plausible. But Le Kreol cannot as yet be taught as a language, for the simple reason that it is not a written language, although we are convinced that in future, may be a distant future, it will certainly attain the form of a written language. It has not as yet acquired any orthography. It is therefore quite premature to consider this language as an examinable subject. We have to shape it into an acceptable standardized form before we venture to establish it as a school subject.

Objections to the idea that oriental languages should be considered as subjects for ranking purposes at the CPE examination are not quite plausible. Furthermore the declaration that those taking oriental languages at the CPE have an advantage over those who do not, is quite puzzling. The assumption here looks like having doubt over the fairness of the examiners.

<B>A concluding suggestion</B>

Let us leave the job of inclusion or otherwise of a language in examinations to professionals and experts. They are the people who understand the specifics of a language, the timing of its inclusion in the curriculum, or its exclusion as ?matière d?enseignement? for the time being, and so on. To become emotionally charged during discussions can deprive us of the essential state of mind for constructive decisions.

Furthermore, not everyone can be expert in the domain of language. Also, whether those taking oriental languages enjoy an advantage, or whether those not taking an oriental language at CPE Examination have more time to concentrate on fewer subjects and are therefore better off, are all amateurish comments. To come to an acceptable consensus we must be careful not to step where angels fear to tread.

*Associate Professor

by André Wan Chow Wah*