The organisers of the seminar on School and language: from mother tongue to foreign languages? were obviously disappointed. Minister Gokhool did not attend the conference held by the Bureau of Catholic Education (BEC) on the occasion of the International Day of Mother Tongue yesterday. A letter by the ministry sent to the BEC on Monday contained no commitment concerning both requests made by the BEC.

The first one was about a collaboration for a pilot project leading to the introduction of teaching Mauritian Creole in some of the BEC primary schools for a three-year period as from 2010. Then, the BEC was also seeking the ministry?s support in ?proposing that question papers (apart from English and French) be set in bilingual form?.

But the minister stated he could not respond to any of the requests. ?My minister reiterates his support for any research on Creole which you may wish to carry out but (?) it is premature to consider the signing of any document. Please note that we have made it clear in our curriculum document that English will remain the medium of instruction in our schools,? the letter states.

As for the bilingual year III evaluation, ?it seems there was a misunderstanding about the request,? stated the BEC project manager, Jimmy Harmon, in his short speech. But the latter prefers ?to engage further discussions upon this matter with the minister in person?.

However, the absence of the minister did not prevent the BEC from ?initiating the first discussions and reflection on Mauritian Creole in primary schools? thanks to quality speakers among whom Frédéric de Turpin, senior lecturer at the University of Reunion, Dr Danielle Florigny, associate professor at the University of Mauritius.

If all speakers laid emphasis on the difficulties ahead to introduce Creole, they all insisted that a long way has already been covered. For Arnaud Carpooran, ?the introduction of Creole in school is not at stake now. Teachers are already using it everyday. What is at stake is its formal use?. And this formal use will have to go through the adoption of a written form of Creole. Although this implies years of work ? ?you should not live in cloud cuckoo land,? he said to the audience ? he insisted that progress was made especially with the adoption of the spelling ?grafilarmoni? in 2004.

As for Rada Tirvassen, the BEC has been right in not rushing to implement its project. This period should be useful for brainstorming and making all stakeholders aware of the necessity of implementing Creole at primary level. The MIE lecturer also made it clear that, ?even if the adoption of Creole will have a positive impact on the success of pupils, this is not the sole solution to all the problems of failures at school?. The road is still long for the BEC but ?any government will be forced to make a decision over the mother tongue? Why not in 2009?? concluded Jimmy Harmon.