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Form I admission... still in the dark
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Form I admission... still in the dark
The ministry of Education seems to be having a hard time implementing the new system of admission to Form I as from January 2007. After rushing to announce that there would be national and regional admissions – without clearly explaining how this would be done – the ministry is now studying the ways of setting up a fair system for the majority : they seem to have opted for the “ranges of marks”.
The main idea of the “Gokhool reform” is the emergence of nine national colleges – as opposed to regional colleges – where only the best 1,260 CPE pupils (choosing one of these nine colleges) will have a seat. A certain number of points have remained vague after the minister’s presentation. For instance, it was not said how the Mauritius Examination Syndicate (MES) would manage to choose between pupils who would all have obtained the famous “A+” (representing 90 to 100 marks) if they were more than 1,260. Likewise, how would they choose to send this pupil to the Queen Elizabeth College and the other one to Maurice Curé, if they obtained the same grades?
If the minister could not give a clear answer last week, it seems the MES has been working on it since then; they may have found a more precise method of selection. Instead of classifying pupils by ranking, they will be classified according to the marks obtained. “MES software will make it possible to calculate a range of marks for admission to each national college,” explains an official of the ministry. For instance, only pupils obtaining between 97 and 100 marks will be allowed a seat at QEC.
Parents’ choice will count</B>
The parents’ choice will also be taken into consideration; if the child obtains the results for a seat at QEC and the parents prefer that he/she goes to another school, then the child will be sent to the other school. However, parents will have to state their choice before the exams and will have to stick to it after the results.
The advantage of the formula is also that it will bring a solution if ever there are more than 1,260 candidates eligible for a seat in national colleges. Although the MES has asserted that their simulations clearly show that there should not be many such cases, the government can’t afford to base itself only on simulations. With this new system of “ranges of marks”, it will be possible to make the difference between the 1,260th and the 1,261st pupil, thanks to their marks.
However, all this will not be done in a transparent way. The MES regulations stipulate that they do not have the right to reveal candidates’ marks. Therefore, parents will have to trust the MES if such a system is set up.
Even if this system reinforces competition and the ‘rat race’ in the CPE exams, it gives the government a way out. It can maintain that it is not reinstating ‘ranking’. But, when the “elite” works under pressure for a ‘star’ national college and the ones obtaining less good results lag behind – with a possible feeling of frustration – what will the fundamental difference be between the new system and the old?
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<B>Come what may?</B>
The minister had a hard time last week when he revealed the new method of admission to Form I. He had to suffer a lot of criticism from public opinion and pedagogues. But astonishingly enough, instead of answering the questions and trying to calm people down, he has not spoken since then. He handed out dictionaries and atlases in a school of the southern region at the end of the week but he was adamant that he would not discuss the issue – which the whole population is worried about. The public has the right to know what will happen to the growing generation that is the future of the country. Even the United Nations are worried about the new system qualified as “elitist” by one of the members present in Geneva for the UN summit on children’s rights.
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