In a press conference on Saturday, Xavier-Luc Duval also spoke about the appointment of the Director of Audit. He said that in the way he would have refused the post if he was in the place of Dharamraj Palidagu. “The Director of Audit has been appointed by procedures that I call illegal. There was no call for applications. They simply took instructions from the Cabinet Secretary,” he said.
Xavier-Luc Duval recalled that the former chairman of the Public Service Commission had come to meet with him regarding the appointment of the former incumbent as Director of Audit. “But this time, the new PSC chairman chose to write only to me, and he did not take into account my comments. Because I objected to the procedure and to the person,” he said.
For him, Dharamraj Paligadu is “a choice imposed by the government” and he “will not have the moral right to give lessons”.
The leader of PMSD returned to the Extended Programme, which was the subject of his Private Notice Question. He said that Minster of Education, Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, is insisting that the programme is good whereas teachers and all stakeholders acknowledge that the results will be catastrophic. “Because of Ms Dookun, some students will stay in this programme for 6 years instead of 3,” he said.
For Xavier-Luc Duval, it is the “most disastrous programme in the world”. He argued that a plan where 96% of students fail is a disaster and a crime against children. He announced that there will be other Private Notice Questions on education. He called for a change in the name of the Ministry of Education to that of Ministry in charge of Talent Development. “We have a population of 1.3 million people. This is our treasure. We have enormous talent in the country. It is the role of the government to discover and develop them,” he said.
Finally, he called for the abolition of the Extended Programme and the return of the old pre-vocational system.
