When a country has the ambition of becoming a cyber island, it has to take all its citizens on board. Just as it was the case for sugar, textiles or tourism, the whole population should feel involved in the development of this new sector. And this starts at the earliest level with children in primary schools. The teaching of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has been part of the curriculum in primary schools since the former government but the present minister of Education, Dharam Gokhool, appears even more determined to “equip children with the basic skills in ICT”.

“ICT prepares pupils to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing technologies. Pupils use ICT tools to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information responsibly, creatively and discriminately. They learn how to employ ICT to enable rapid access to information, ideas and experiences from a wide range of people, communities and cultures.” This is the minister’s vision and the initiative is without doubt laudable on paper but does it apply in the daily functioning of the schools?

The first step towards implementing ICT in all classes at primary level is to supply all schools with computers. “Primary schools including those in Rodrigues and Agalega were provided with five PCs and a printer soon after I took office as minister. My ministry is actively engaged in the procurement of additional equipment for primary schools”, the minister pointed out at the beginning of year at the opening ceremony of the training programme for newly recruited ICT primary school teachers.

For many years, primary schools have been equipped with one computer only. Today, things may have improved but it is still not enough for all pupils to really get in touch with ICT. Some schools do not even have a specific ICT classroom and the computers are left in the head teacher’s office, which is often very small and can’t accommodate a whole class. “In fact, ICT is taught on the blackboard in some schools,” reveals a source in the education sector.

It appears that all schools may not be ready to welcome the teaching of ICT. There is no doubt that the initiative to implement it as a subject was laudable, as ICT is seen as one of the future pillars of the economy. Getting the next generation on board to make sure they can deal with the economy as it will be when they grow up is certainly a good move. However, some pedagogues wonder whether it should have been considered as a priority.

Before ICT was introduced in the curriculum, education left little or no room for the audiovisual. “In developed countries, we can define three phases of education: pre-audiovisual – known as the chalk and talk method – the audiovisual one and the introduction of ICT. In Mauritius, we have not even started the second phase and we already want to race ahead towards ICT,” comments a stakeholder of the educational sector. “We have never had a culture of the audiovisual – the Mauritius College of the Air has not been up to expectations at all – and we have skipped a major phase which all other developed countries have been through,” he adds.

Now, to introduce ICT, there needs to be a precise and detailed project, the technical and technological conditions have to be combined and there should be a maintenance team to make sure the daily details are dealt with. Moreover, there should of course be trained human resources in all schools. The Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE) actually realised ten years ago that ICT would become increasingly important in Mauritius and started training of teachers at that time.

<I>“Getting the next generation on board to help them deal with the economy when they grow up is a good move. But should this should be considered as a top-priority?“</I>

When he launched the training programme in January, the minister of Education made it clear: “ICT teachers will impart ICT skills to our pupils but our objective is to embed ICT in our school system for teaching and learning across the curriculum.” With this in mind, all ICT teachers were given a syllabus for ICT for Standards I to VI and a set of CDs of educational software.

But the lack of computers still raises some problems. “In other countries, they also started with little equipment but their little equipment meant at least one computer for each class, giving the opportunity for all to use it”, a teacher points out. “One way to avoid the lack of computers would have been to concentrate efforts on the higher classes. Instead of starting ICT in Standards I to VI, the ministry could first start with Standard VI only and gradually tackle lower classes,” he further comments.

Some people seem to think that the previous government implemented ICT in schools very rapidly only for prestige. And that the present one is keeping it going for the same reason. They both rushed in implementing programmes that might not even correspond to children’s needs. But, more importantly, computers were bought, teachers were trained and specific programmes were invented for a brand new subject while the educational system still suffers from “chronic lacks”. In a country where reading books are not available in all schools and where the failure rate is so high at primary level, was it a priority to introduce ICT?

<B>Pauline ETIENNE</B>

NEW INITIATIVES

<B>Media libraries in seven schools</B>

The government is encouraging all schools to set up media libraries. “Introducing ICT in schools was a good initiative but we need to give the pupils the chance to use what they learn,” the ministry points out. CDs are being prepared for the pupils and they must be given an area where they can use them. Seven schools have already opened their media libraries funded by Parents-Teachers Associations (PTAs). At the ministry level, it is hoped that “others will follow in their tracks thanks to donators and parents”.

ICT IN SCHOOLS

<B>Aims set by government </B>

• Develop a sense of ICT culture

• Foster an interest in the enjoyment of and confidence about ICT

• Develop an appreciation of the range and power of computer applications

• Provide students with a firm understanding of basic techniques and knowledge which would enable them to use common software applications to perform tasks

• Develop an awareness in students of the place of ICT in society and the issues ICT raises in society.

• Foster a desire to use computers within other interests

<I>(Source: website Ministry of Education)</I>