A fee-paying school for ?high quality? education. Is this a hint that College Ste-Marie would be the only catholic college providing quality education? This project to open a private fee-paying secondary school has led to a number of questions from those who have followed the heated debate on admission to catholic colleges that are funded by the State.

But Father Hervé de St Pern wants to reassure them. ?This college will not be better than the others?, the director of the Bureau of Catholic Education (BCE) clarifies. ?Every child has the right to quality education in our schools or in other private and State schools (?). But College St Marie will offer more in terms of pedagogy. We will propose new programmes leading to the International Baccalalaureate and the IVTB-City & Guilds.? The new school will also offer new subjects such as IT, hospitality, communication?) Due to open next January, the school will start with 90 pupils only ? three Form I classes. It will be a co-ed college, a first in Catholic secondary education.

Spin-off of Privy Council judgment

Many people wonder what could have prompted the Church to revive a system that it abandoned in 1977 with the advent of free education and that it has been resisting over the past few years? The idea actually came from parents, says Father de St Pern. But the lobby has always existed. There have always been parents eager to pay for their wards? education.

It would seem that the lobby has been more pressing after the Privy Council judgement declaring the religious criterion for the allocation of reserved seats in Form I illegal. ?Many catholics and non-catholics wanted a catholic college to be opened to answer the needs of well-off parents who wish to offer a catholic education to their children,? Bishop Maurice Piat explains. Some parents have even said they would never have sent their wards to other fee-paying colleges if there had been a catholic fee-paying school.

The director of the BEC admits that College Ste-Marie, as a fee-paying college, will be free to allocate its seats, adding: ?We want quite an important number of catholic children in the school.? However, he assured that religion would not be the only criterion for admission. Pupils from Loreto Curepipe and Vacoas primary schools would have priority for admission. Then it would be on a ?first come, first served? basis.

Father de St Pern is adamant that the school should not to be perceived as a ?college for wealthy people only?. The Catholic authorities are planning to give at least three scholarships to needy students in each class. For them, school fees will be paid from a special solidarity fund. Other parents will have to make a deposit of Rs 25,000 on request for admission and pay monthly fees of Rs 3,800. He maintains that the college will be non-profit making. All revenues will be reinvested in the school. At first, the school will be in a rented building in Rose-Hill but there are plans to start a proper building soon.

Now that it has received the bishop?s green light, the project will be submitted to the education authorities. In the meantime, parents, whose wards are taking CPE exams soon, will have to wait until September to know what the admission criteria will be for the 50% reserved seats in other Catholic colleges. All the rectors have submitted their proposals, which are now under study by a special committee.