● <B> What is the ?competency-based approach?? What changes will it bring to our education system and how will it benefit the pupil? </B>

There are different models of curriculum development, some focusing on knowledge transmission and assessment of such knowledge and others more on skills and personal development. ?Competency-based approaches? have become a privileged topic in curriculum discourses as it claims that learners should be able to mobilize their values, knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours in a personal, independent way, to address challenges successfully. Challenges are present everywhere and they can be academic, but also practical and life-oriented. This new approach in education and learning (and curriculum development) requires a focus not only on inputs to/pre-requisites of learning, but also on outcomes or results. Such results however, do not pertain only to ?academic knowledge? as in traditional testing where rote memorisation of pre-fabricated knowledge is required. Competences are not just skills, as opposed to knowledge, but represent a complex articulation of knowledge, attitudes and skills that learners can mobilize, whenever they are needed, and not just in examinations.

Pupils in Mauritius could benefit a lot from this approach ? and not just in primary education. Competency-based curricula fostering learner-friendly teaching and learning strategies could engender a shift from sheer memorisation to the development of higher-order intellectual skills and life skills, including communication, social, emotional and other relevant skills. Sometimes I see ?competences? presented as opposed to knowledge. In fact, knowledge should not be disregarded but it has to be ?active? as opposed to what Alfred North Whitehead called ?dead knowledge?. Knowledge should thus be relevant, up-to-date and ?vivid? ? helping learners solve both very simple and very complex problems. Today?s world requires quick adaptation and action. It needs competences that individuals and communities develop throughout their lives. It also puts emphasis on personal and collective initiative and creativity, which are very important factors in human progress.

?Good human rights education means to balance wisely what learners need in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes - and how to make them work together to defend human rights.?

● <B> How does your visit tie up with the previous one? </B>

Last year I came for a two-week intensive workshop on exploring skills to integrate a competency-based approach in primary education. I worked with some 90 curriculum specialists, members of subject panels, who develop new primary curricula and textbooks. This year I was invited to assess Human Rights Education (HRE) in the education system, with emphasis on curriculum aspects. My report will provide not only an overview of the situation but also recommendations on how to strengthen HRE in the curricula. But we are also looking into links between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between schools and communities. The two assignments are linked because HRE relies on the development of personal and collective competences - interpersonal, social, communication and intercultural. It should not be approached as a merely knowledge-loaded area. Good HRE means to balance wisely what learners need in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes ? and how to make them work together to promote and defend human rights. I may return in a few months for training on specific issues of HRE and curriculum development.

● <B> The intention of introducing HRE into the system is present ? what else is needed to succeed in this project? </B>

There is a need for an effective campaign to seek public support for HRE. Misunderstandings and misconceptions about human rights and HRE are widespread, even in schools and families. Human rights are equated with citizens? rights, for instance. Though there are many connections between them, human rights are principles of living together in a civilized way, by putting emphasis on the value of human life and the respect of human dignity, regardless of individual and collective differences. The human rights movement is based on the principle that our common humanity is more important than differences ? such as gender, age, race, language, religion, skin colour, social status, country of origin ? which should never serve as a basis for discrimination. Misconceptions and misunderstandings can trigger a lot of resistance. Sometimes there is resistance from people who have a good understanding of human rights or claim to have it. In such cases, one should be able to explain the advantages of HRE and to openly tackle sensitivities and reluctance. In many cases, people I met expressed their fears that HRE would emphasise only rights and not duties or responsibilities. This should be explained publicly: firstly, HRE is not just about rights, but about how observing responsibilities can makes rights respected. Secondly, proper and intensive training of curriculum and textbook specialists, and of teachers, is needed. While HRE tends to be part of ?common sense? with everybody pretending to understand or practise it (in schools many indeed practise HRE without calling it that) it requires specialised training just as teaching languages or mathematics. But maths and language teachers can be trained, not to invent a new subject, but use the potential of their respective subjects for HRE. While the ministry of Education fosters an integration of HRE in primary and secondary education, we should also look for ?carrier-subjects?, such as social studies.

<B> Beti PEERUN</B>