The Bureau of Catholic education (BCE) must be relieved that the government has approved both their projects. On the one hand, the minister of Education, Steven Obeegadoo, has officially said he has “no doubt whatsoever that the new Form I admission criteria are constitutional”. On the other hand, the first fee-paying catholic college has received the green light for its opening.

Steven Obeegadoo did not want to comment on the new proposals of the Catholic authorities for the allocation of their 740 seats in Form I. He took his time but finally declared, “They are free to go ahead with their criteria. We have no reason to doubt their constitutionality.”

The admission procedures to Ste-Marie had started a month ago. The Private Secondary Schools Authority has given its official written approval. This new school is said to have arisen from a demand by parents to the catholic authorities and will offer a new concept to children. The parents will deposit Rs 25,000 on enrolment and pay monthly fees of Rs 3,800. “Self-financing will allow us to innovate regarding pedagogy. We could employ a theatre teacher for our students,” the rector of Ste-Marie, Janine Provençal, explains.

However, the catholic authorities are adamant that the school will be neither luxurious nor elitist. Scholarships will be offered to needy children and financed partly from parents’ contributions.

The college will start in 2005 with three Form I classes of 30 pupils each in rented premises in Rose-Hill but it will move to Quatre-Bornes as from 2006 and will gradually accommodate up to 650 students. Parents will be called upon to play an important role in the running of the school. At a meeting last Friday to explain the project to parents of Loreto Vacoas, Father de St Pern stressed on the fact that the school is “open to all Mauritian children of all creeds who will thus learn to live in a spirit of sharing and mutual enrichment”.

These two events wind up important issues for catholic secondary education. After the Privy Council judgment, the catholic authorities have taken some time to find the “best solutions”. Things seem to have started settling down…