I would like to react to S. K. Mahadeo?s article entitled ?What ails this generation of teachers?? published in the 13th June issue of your esteemed paper.

As a teacher of long standing in a private secondary school, I cannot but agree with Mr Mahadeo?s comments, especially with regard to the following two points:

(i) that pre-service training isn?t a one-stop shop where you buy all your victuals for a lifetime;

(ii) that most teachers lack leaders who can help them develop professional attitudes.

My colleagues and myself recently had the good fortune and privilege to attend a half-day workshop on ?Teachers as Heroes: the head/heart Axis? by Dr D. Awootar from the MIE, who is also the current President of ALIVE Mauritius (Association for Living Values Education). This workshop, backed by PowerPoint presentation, hands-on activities by participants and enriched by Dr Awootar?s well-known mastery of the English Language and acute sense of humour, was a real delight from all angles.

The workshop has prompted fresh openings and developed new insights and helped us grow both as teachers and as human beings. Every participant in the workshop (including those from other schools to which he has been) is unanimous in acknowledging that it has been such an enriching experience that things can never be the same as before. Our whole outlook has undergone a sea change for the better.

That half-day workshop has personally taught me much more than what I would probably have learnt in a full-time course in terms of professional attitude, responsibility, empathy, love for and pride in the profession as well as a commitment to serve. The workshop - and I am looking forward to many more - has confirmed S. K. Mahadeo?s remark to the effect that ?the MIE has illustrious men and women who have the potential to form cohorts of effective teachers?.

My humble request is that teachers from all schools ? private and state ? be given the privilege to attend such a workshop. Things will be so different in such a short time!

<B>Nunkeswar OOCHIT</B>