Cambridge never errs. So it says, or used to say. Years of deep-rooted tradition of stonewalling of this prestigious institution have not shielded it from the widely shared view that it errs over and over again. But now, the whole island may be erring with Cambridge and not heeding the writing on the wall may soon turn our cyber island ambition into a pipe-dream.

True is it that Cambridge School Certificate and Higher School Certificate, colonial relics, have helped Mauritius to grow. They are recognized worldwide. Our laureates perform very well indeed in foreign universities. Their creativity potential and the way they are outshone by non-laureates in their careers is another question.

So, whilst the local education world is still gloating over the feat of our laureates, Great Britain may be starting today its biggest examination shake-up for more than 50 years. Former Chief Schools Inspector Mike Tomlinson, who headed a State inquiry into education for 14-19 students, is unveiling his plans today. Part of his report has already leaked out.

Apart from enabling bright schoolchildren to start university at 16, he is proposing to allow more time for creativity in the sixth-form curriculum. Mike Tomlinson?s report recommends improving sixth-formers? thinking and communication skills through compulsory « extended projects ».

In Mauritius, one fact is undisputed: HSC holders, laureates or non-laureates, are shockingly deprived of thinking and communication skills. It is easy meat to score distinctions in SC and HSC French. However, call centres hiring distinction holders complain the latter cannot communicate with French clients. Hammering foreigners with a French accent is one thing. But having to teach them French from scratch when they are Cambridge distinction holders is quite unsettling.

The picture is no brighter with English, despite the reintroduction of an oral examination at SC and the compulsory General Paper at HSC. One may be shocked by harrowing tales of laureates not understanding the English of their British university tutors during their first three months of studies.

Twenty years back, we swallowed a most fallacious concept from Cambridge. We accepted the idea of a written ?alternative-to-practical test? in Chemistry, Physics and Biology at SC level. It must be said, in defence of Cambridge, that many private colleges had neither laboratories nor means of equipping themselves. But it should have made it clear at the outset, as Dr Suddhoo of the Mauritius Research Council puts it, that ?the only alternative to practical is ? practical?.

The world has changed fast since the introduction of this alternative. It is high time that we start contemplating a thorough curriculum reform, pushing for more creativity, more communicating and thinking skills, as well as replacing talk and chalk by more practical work in language and science, particularly computer studies.

Tomorrow may be too late.