The headmaster announced a modest gathering; it turned out to be a show full of humour by the pupils of André Bazerque government school, which hosted the book donation by the British Council to the ministry of Education last Thursday. After providing Zones Three and Four with books in English for children, the British Council tackled Zone Two. All donations are made with the same objective: “encourage pupils to read from a very early age,” as the director of the British Council, Simon Ingram-Hill, explained.

What Simon Ingram-Hill wanted to point out was that reading “has to be fun for these pupils to acquire the skills”. Those books are precisely about having fun while becoming literate. Thanks to the sketch done by Yasmine Heedoo of the British Council with the participation of some children, the British Council showed that the books are entertaining and children can take real pleasure in reading them.

He made it clear that reading gives more exposure to the language. “But reading is not just sitting and quietly reading a book for oneself. As we have seen here today, it must also involve story-telling, songs and sketches so that children find it easy and are happy to do it.”

The school seemed to have made a big effort to prepare the show for their guests. All stakeholders - teachers, pupils and parents - took part in the preparations. Mirella, the mother of one of the budding players, was the one who sewed the dress of Red Riding Hood as well as the wolf’s cloak. “She is extremely low-profile but she really gave us a lot of help with the play,” says Shirin Dooreemeeah, the teacher who prepared the humourous adaptation of Red Riding Hood.

It was actually the only play in Creole, so it was the one that everyone could understand. The scene, played by CPE repeaters, takes place in a court-room where the wolf is being questioned by the judge about what he did to Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. In fact, it appeared as a satire of Mauritian society and the public could not help laughing, especially when the judge yelled to the attorney general present for the event, “Mr. Rama, take him and go away!” The song (Island in the Sun) by the pupils of Standard IV and the story-telling by the headmaster (The old man and his grandson) were two more highlights of the afternoon.

The ceremony was all the more successful considering that the school had had so little time to prepare it. “I am really impressed by the way the pupils managed to get the show together especially considering that we didn’t have much time to prepare it. I am sure adults would never have been able to do it within such a short time,” declared head teacher Panyandee when it was all over.

Worthwhile future</B>