The CPE nightmare may soon be over for tens of thousands of children and their parents, but the harm the system has inflicted on the children will not evaporate into thin air. It is generally recognized that this century, or as far as we can see, will belong to nations that use their brain power in the knowledge economy. We have seen how agriculture has been industrialized and has ceded a large share of its market to heavy industry, which in turn is now becoming increasingly ICT driven and, in many countries, largely overtaken by the knowledge economy.

We want Mauritius to become an intelligent island, we want to move faster into the services sector, we want to make Mauritius become a Knowledge Hub in this part of the world, but our vision continues to be blurred by the CPE syndrome. We need to promote the spirit of innovative thinking ,entrepreneurship and adaptability, qualities which the CPE however does its best to kill in the mind of our youngsters.

Adversity is our best teacher, and education has always come to our rescue. First it was universal primary education that was the panacea. Then the democratization of free secondary education as from 1977 provided an educated workforce to spearhead our entry into the world of industrialization.

Education kept pace with our need to move up economically. Today we are facing serious problems in the two major sectors of our economy: sugar and textile. We have now reached a point where we will have to transform our society into a knowledge society to spearhead the next stage of our development. We have no option but to invest massively in tertiary education. We need to democratize tertiary education as well as identify and retain our elite when they complete secondary education, not at the early age of 11!

Tertiary Education does not mean Higher Education and University degrees only. It has to encompass the whole of post-secondary education, including professional and vocational education. The University of Mauritius was set up in the 1960?s to respond to the need for middle level technicians and managers for the new industrial era, and much later it was the IVTB that was set up to train the required manpower in the different trades.

It is however not possible to continue hammering on free tertiary education, which is much more costly than primary and secondary education. Most nations, including the richest ones, make students pay at least a percentage of the cost of higher education, but providing them with soft loans repayable after they start working. Singapore charges about 25% of the cost of higher education and all students are eligible for loans to see them through their studies,

On the other hand it would be neither possible nor desirable to offer full time studies to everybody. Setting up a University costs a huge amount of money. The UTM is still waiting to have its own campus. The answer is to expand the existing institutions and set up an Open University which will provide a flexible mode of learning to school leavers as well as people at work. Again if we look at Singapore, a private institution called the Singapore Institute of Management started by linking up with top Universities in the world to provide Open learning courses in a wide range of areas. Last year the Singapore government granted it University status and it has now become SIM University, the Open University of Singapore.

Our salvation will come when we end our obsession with the CPE and focus our attention on tertiary education, when parents save the money they would have spent on private tuition for their children in primary education and use it for tertiary education, provided their savings are not taxed!

Inevitably many of our best professionals and tradesmen will want to leave our shores for greener pastures elsewhere. But many will also want to remain, and both the public and private sectors should have appropriate schemes to attract and retain them. If Mauritius wants to take its place in the knowledge society of the 21st century it is in this field that it has to take bold measures as it did in the past in the face of global challenges.

Surendra BISSOONDOYAL