<B>By Surendra Bissoondoyal</B>

The prejudice against children who were taught only one ?skill? and failed to regurgitate what they were expected to learn by heart continues to deprive mauritian society of all the human resources it needs for its economic and social development. Societies which do not learn from others and from their own mistakes do so at their risks and perils. "No man is an island, entire of itself", reflected John Donne four hundred years ago, adding "I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee". One hundred years before John Donne made this reflection Vasco da Gama had opened up a new spice route to India and three hundred years earlier Marco Polo had travelled along the silk route to China. Even in those difficult times people were eager to learn from one another.

The USA, rightly or wrongly, is perceived as a conservative and arrogant nation. But there is at the same time a soul-searching by many Americans to project themselves as open to new ideas and to the changing world configuration. The emergence of Barack Obama as the Democratic Presidential candidate shows that it is far less conservative than most nations, and the American debacle in the world, particularly in Iraq, coupled with the state of its economy are reason enough not to make it feel arrogant. A land of immigrants ?- apart from a small percentage of natives --- it has learnt to build a nation with the contribution of people coming from all over the world. It is also an open society with a long democratic tradition which makes it a learning nation.

All nations have to learn from one another, albeit with a sense of discernment. We need not adopt lock, stock and barrel what others are doing from a sense of inferiority or reject everything from a sense of superiority. If Europe had replaced the clumsy Roman numerals by the decimal system and the symbol for zero that the Arabs had transmitted to it from India in the 7th century instead of waiting one thousand years to do so Mathematics and Science would have leapfrogged centuries. On the other hand although India have an all-embracing unifying culture in spite of its diversity it would probably had broken into small states if it had not adopted the English language and democracy from the British colonizers. But it has also to learn from its weaknesses and shortcomings. If it cannot rein in the divisive forces of regionalism and caste, this will spell doom to economic progress and social peace, if not to the unity of India itself.

Mauritius also is a nation of immigrants who came from France, Britain, India, China and Africa and we have to learn not only from one another but also from what is happening elsewhere. As a nation we were at one time ahead of most African nations in economic and social development. But whilst many African countries have now surpassed us in terms of economic and infrastructure development we remain content wit "effets d?annonce". Reunion island and some East and South African nations are ahead of us in the use of alternate sources of energy. France itself, which enjoys much less sunlight than Mauritius, has started to harness solar energy for home and commercial consumption.

We do not need to ape any country or any system blindly. Japan and Germany recovered from their World War II defeat to become world economic powers after only a couple of decades by learning from the victorious nations as well as from their own cultures and resources. Singapore has decided to " cut back on the amount of content knowledge that students are required to learn" by encouraging teachers and students to spend more time on projects that can help develop "the creative thinking skills required for the future". Compare this with our obstinacy to stick to the same content-loaded curricula and the same examination systems that we inherited from our colonial masters even after they themselves have modified theirs in line with modern research and new requirements.