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Improved relations between ministry and school managers
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Improved relations between ministry and school managers
Dialogue has been restored between managers of private colleges and the ministry of Education. The two parties met last Thursday to try and reach a consensus over grants after the managers’ threat of a lock-out when school resumes next January. Even though no decision has been taken, the relationship is no doubt less tense and there could be “frank and clear discussions”. The minister of Education, Dharam Gokhool, nevertheless agreed that the Mauritius Audit Bureau (MAB) should make new proposals for the grants, which seems to have reassured the managers.
“As the education sector is in a transition period, we agreed we should not change the formula”, commented minister Gokhool after their meeting. He did not say in which direction he will be going but managers are happy to see that the minister is willing to listen to their problems. However, they will wait for the decision from the MAB to be made public before removing their threats.
The bone of contention lay in the MAB’s decision to implement a new grant programme for all private colleges as from 1st July. This new programme implied that 70 % of the State funds would depend on the number of students enrolled in a college and the rest on its performance. After the meeting, a joint communiqué by the ministry and the managers’ federation made it clear that, “the present grant formula will be maintained with appropriate changes which will be introduced. The MAB will make new proposals by next week”. The managers only hope that the new proposals will “better correspond to their needs”.
The minister also committed to find a solution to the problem of the differences in government funding to public and private schools. The private schools feel it unfair that they should obtain only half the grants of public schools. The Private Secondary Schools Authority pointed at those differences in its blueprint to the ministry last August.
The minister made it clear that he would set up a committee to find a consensus over this issue and on that of “substandard” schools – as described in the blueprint. The committee might be led to take decisions for such schools since the government is financing them every year without yielding any profit.
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