According to the examiners? report, 49 % of our CPE pupils got 0 mark in composition writing in 2004. This is a matter of grave concern when after six years of primary schooling, our children are not able to write a complete and coherent sentence. What is even more worrying is the fact that a large number of the children do not even attempt to answer these types of questions. These are grim readings which are bound to send shock waves to parents and to policy makers at the ministry of Education.

It is no great surprise indeed and it is to the credit of the ministry of Education that they are taking matters in hand. According to James Burty David, as from January 2006, the ministry of Education will be organizing workshops for teachers to stimulate interest in composition writing. This is all very well and indeed a bold and positive move on the part of the current government to redress this catastrophic situation. Although teachers must have had quite a number of seminars/workshops in the context of the literacy project, which has cost the Government/tax payers the hefty sum of 57 millions rupees, there is no doubt that they can do with all this additional support and that they will benefit from these proposed workshops.

But will our pupils? Will these workshops stimulate the writing of composition? Or should we look elsewhere for a real solution? Should we not instead review the very format of the CPE paper? Or at least in the immediate future revise more appropriately the weighting to the different questions of the paper?

Three years ago when the infamous ranking system was replaced by a grading system, the range of marks for each grade was modified to accommodate this change. The grading system used now by the MES is as follows:

With this grading system, it is possible to obtain a Grade A without even attempting the composition which carries 20 marks.

One may wonder whether presently all our Standard V and VI teachers, who already have to cope with the pressure of a heavy syllabus and mixed ability classes for which they do not always have the training, are in fact teaching this demanding competency, composition writing. Some teachers find that the need to teach composition writing is not warranted since their pupils can still get the best grade without it. If these are the true reflections of the teachers? views, will workshops really help to change the situation bearing in mind that most teachers teach to the test and not to develop the child?

A first step would be to find out from the MES if there has been a change in the percentage of pupils attempting the composition with the introduction of the new grading system. Did more pupils attempt composition writing before the new grades were introduced? How well were they performing?

Since we are on the subject of examination papers, without going into technicalities, the public and our policy makers may find it interesting to know that in the language papers for the CPE examination, about 35 % of the marks are allocated to Multiple Choice items, where, as we all know, there is 25 % chance of getting the right answer by guessing and about 40% of the items require short answer questions, some of them one word answer. The table below shows the number of items each question in the English paper consists of, the competencies being tested, the type of answers required and the marks allocation for each question. There is no major difference in the design of all the language papers.

With this mark allocation pupils can get the highest grade i.e A without doing the most meaningful question in the paper, the composition . Not only can pupils get As without writing more than a few simple sentences, but with the percentage of multiple choice items in the paper, pupils can also pass the examination without showing valid evidence that they can read and write

The present format in fact gives rise to a number of questions:

How meaningful are the given grades? What do they in fact mean in concrete, valid and useful terms? Normally, one would associate a Grade ?A? with excellence. Teachers know how high is the standard of students who get an ?A? at Higher School Certificate or even at School Certificate.

But what is the standard of those who get an ?A? at CPE in terms of competencies, skills and knowledge acquired? Can we say for certain that they are excellent or even that they can read and write very well?

Can we say for certain that all the pupils who have passed the CPE can read and write at a level appropriate for their age and number of years of schooling?

The answer to both questions is clearly No. Under the present circumstances it is by no means surprising that 49% of our pupils are leaving schools after 6 years without being able to read and write.

While ideally, curriculum should be the most important element in education, numerous studies have shown that in actual fact it is the examination which drives the curriculum. The impact of examinations on teaching and learning in developing countries where opportunities are fewer is higher still. And Mauritius is no exception. The impact of the CPE is well documented in many of our educational reports. Our children are spending the best years of their childhood in class, their health damaged by the heavy burden of books and long hours of private tuition but what sort of learning are they acquiring? Is any learning taking place? Or are they being drilled to pass or get the highest grade in an examination which can be passed without showing evidence of real learning?

In 1994 the MES reformed the examination papers on the basis of the competency philosophy. One of the main objectives for introducing the learning competencies was to ?identify the basic skills and learning competencies needed by children to become literate functional citizens?. Has the MES carried out an evaluation of its reform project to see whether it is having the desired impact? Because it does not look as if the format of our language paper is helping to make our children literate and functional citizens. Since we are on the subject of examination, one could also ask questions about how fair is the way the MES is presently scaling the marks of the pupils. And what research has been done to ensure that pupils are not unfairly penalized and that a gender is not being favoured at the expense of the other. But this is another debate

For a language like English, the consequences are worse still since failure to acquire a reasonable standard in the reading and writing of English is bound to negatively impact performance in most other subjects.

Amidst all the discussions about reforms, curriculum development and quality learning, one could ask the MES if the present paper is the best this institution can offer.

If Mauritius is to compete against the best in the world, we need to provide the best education to our future leaders and people. They are the ones who will carry our flag. If half of those who are currently taking the examinations can?t write a complete and coherent sentence, the future does not look very bright for each and every one of us.

Dr Seeookumar Chumun