There is an air of nostalgia among experienced or former teachers. Many of them point at the lack of leadership to guide teachers after their training courses at the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE) or elsewhere. Teaching should indeed be a lifelong quest, for new methods to make learning more interesting for children may be discovered everyday. Prem Burton, a former director of the Private Secondary Schools Association (PSSA), recently declared, ?If inspectors were coming to classrooms for regular visits and pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of teachers, there is no doubt that the latter would be more determined to achieve success with their pupils?. The ministry of Education seems to have taken such reflections into consideration, as shown by the recent answer given by minister Gokhool in Parliament a few days back.

?The whole idea of a national inspectorate is a little outdated because when we talk about pedagogical inspection, it is associated with the idea of control, inspection and policing,? said the minister of Education in Parliament. The problem with the system, as it has existed so far, is that it ?creates a lot of resistance and tensions and bad feeling?. This is why he has started reflecting upon possible changes to be brought to that system, ?We are trying to move away from that concept to the concept of quality assurance and proposals in that respect are being studied at my ministry?.

For Prem Saddul, former director of the MIE, ?It is high time that the role of inspectors and supervisors in our primary and secondary schools be revisited. In my opinon inspectors and supervisors should be pedagogical advisers, facilitators and above all trainers from whom teachers expect regular formative feedback. This should be given urgent attention especially in the context of the implementation of any educational reform?.

He might be relieved to hear that the ministry of Education is working on a system of quality assurance expected to provide for pedagogical improvement programmes. ?The objective of this pedagogical plan is to improve the quality and status of teaching and learning in secondary schools,? comments the minister. With this in mind, a system of clusters in each zone has already been set up for inspection purposes.

?The cluster team will work in close collaboration with the school to create pedagogical teams in order to make sure that there will be a follow-up in working towards the improvement of performance.?

This cluster team will include three zone administrators and one pedagogical inspector who will be responsible for visiting, supervising and inspecting the schools to ensure that they comply with the Quality Assurance standards that will soon be introduced. This team will also have to make sure that each school which does not reach a reasonable or acceptable pass rate in the School Certificate and Higher School Certificate examinations be given appropriate support through the pedagogical plan.

But the minister does not want inspectors to work on their own. The new quality assurance system aims to work ?more in terms of involving the schools, the heads of departments, the teachers and even the parents, whereas at present it is like the inspector going out to schools to inspect?. This is why the cluster team will work in close collaboration with the school to create pedagogical teams in order to make sure that there will be a follow-up in working towards the improvement of performance. With such a method ? where inspectors train the school staff to take over ? there should not be any need to employ more of them.

There are currently four pedagogical inspectors attached to the ministry of Education. When he took office in 2005, the minister found that they were ?not optimally utilised?. Hence, they were assigned the responsibility of analysing the timetable and human resource requirements in secondary schools for corrective measures to be initiated and implemented in 2008. This aims at contributing towards the ?optimal and effective utilisation of human resources?. This is what they have done in the MEDCO colleges and the method is said to have given ?good results?. A number of transfers have indeed been done in some of these colleges where it was considered that there were too many teachers with too little work to do.

As for Prem Burton however, there should be two types of supervisors as was the case in the past. The pedagogical inspectors dealt with academic and teaching issues while supervisors were taking care of the infrastructure, material and equipment and both of them worked together to make sure that children be given maximum chances of success.

PROJECT

What about the ?National Inspectorate??

■ In 2001, the former government tried to set up a National Inspectorate but it never really took off. According to the ministry of Education, several problems led to the failure of this institution namely: the pedagogical inspectors who came from the Private Secondary School sector were not recognised either by the State Secondary Schools or the Private Secondary Schools with the consequence that access was refused to them; technical problems were encountered in the filling of posts of secondary school inspectors or senior secondary school inspectors, as the secondary schooling sector has its own specificity regarding subject speciality and it was not been possible to decide whether the incumbents would be called upon to carry out specialist or generic inspection; none of these inspectors had been given formal training for inspection and supervision.

OBJECTIVES

The importance of follow-up

■ When teachers start work in schools after their courses at the MIE or any other institution, they are full of ideas about projects and objectives for their pupils. But the present system often causes many of them to fall into the routine of merely making sure that their pupils pass their exams. In fact, they need to bring themselves and their teaching methods regularly into question ? and inspectors are actually supposed to be there to help them to do so. If inspectors are given the appropriate structure to do their jobs properly, teachers should gain a lot from their visits and advice on innovative or more appropriate methods. The role of inspectors appears even more important as there is no continuous professional development for teachers at the moment. However, the minister of Education made it clear that ? ?continuous professional training programmes are of paramount importance if we want teachers to broaden their knowledge and sharpen their practice to meet the challenges of a fast developing world?. This is why the minister plans to implement a ?structured and coherent? training strategy including ?formal pre-service and in-service courses for primary school teachers and education officers; briefing sessions and workshops to address emerging issues and keep pace with changes in the world of education; and specialised ad-hoc training to take care of limitations of teachers and education officers in specific areas?.