What happened last Friday is considered by some as a ?small revolution? in education. The cause is certainly not the prize-giving ceremony of the Bureau of Catholic Education (BEC) to reward the best pupils from the first batch of 217 youngsters who have just completed their three years of Prevokbek. It is rather BEC?s decision to release the results of the first time ever bilingual evaluation exercise those pupils participated in through the medium of Creole and English. This assessment concerned the three years of learning through Creole language and using a multilingual approach.

The results are quite encouraging. 76% of the participants, who had twice failed the Certificate of Primary Education three years ago, have passed these exams, which are of Form II standard. The detailed results are: 75% success in English; 93% in Maths; 82% in French; 92% in Integrated Science & Technical Studies; 72% in Creative Arts; and 64% in Creole.

Following this, the minister of Education, Dharam Gokhool, has started to show an interest in the use of Creole as medium of instruction. During a one hour and a half meeting with BEC last Thursday, he indicated that he had followed very closely the project initiated by BEC involving the use of Creole and that he keeps ?an open mind? on this issue. Is it a first sign of a mindset revolution?

It might be, if we take into account the fact that, on 14th April 2007, Dharam Gokhool confirmed in Parliament that he had declined the invitation from BEC to work together on a research-action plan to integrate Creole in primary education. Until now, this topic had not really been of a great interest for him. But he admitted last Thursday that he is not the one who has the last word, but it rather depends on the Cabinet.

Ministers of Education have always been very cautious about the use of Creole in education. Unfortunately, not because of pedagogical issues, but rather for political reasons. The use of Creole in education has often been associated with a particular ethnic group even though it is the mother tongue of 90% of Mauritians.

Even so the use of mother tongue has proved to be of great use to children. Unesco, the education arm of the United Nations, is very clear about that. ?Since effective learning depends on clear and understandable communication, the language of instruction is at the heart of any learning process. For this reason, mother tongue-based instruction is crucial to providing children with early access to education and to enabling them to participate in the learning process according to their evolving capacities?, writes Sheldon Shaeffer, director of Unesco Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau of Education in a recent report.

<B>One of the main reasons for high failure rate</B>

He further indicates that ?there is a serious lack of recognition and understanding of the role that bi/multilingual education can play in increasing enrolment, retention and achievement in the formal school system?. The Mauritian authorities still refuse to take such arguments and prefer to promote a system where the language used is English although it?s the mother tongue of a very small minority of children. For a long time now, experts have estimated that it is one of the main reasons for the 30% failure rate at CPE level every year.

One must, however, admit that the former minister Steeve Obeegadoo was ready to experiment. Several projects were initiated in government primary schools. But the new regime decided not to continue on this path. Dharam Gokhool stated, still in Parliament earlier this year, that this issue is a very sensitive one and that there should be no rush.

As Gilberte Chung, the director of BEC, puts it, ?three or four more years are needed to confirm a positive trend?. By 2010, she hopes to introduce the use of Creole as medium of instruction in primary schools. It?s also the objective of Jimmy Harmon, the BEC project coordinator, who sees in those results the proof that ?after three years of Prevokbek, the language used is a determining factor in the learning process?.