The Union of Private Secondary Education Employees (UPSEE) is worried about the alternative online system. They believe that this third term will not benefit the student and ask that the Ministry opts instead for an ‘Extended Academic Year‘ which ends in November 2022 instead of April 2022. The UPSEE will hold a press conference on Tuesday 11th January at 11am to highlight their 6 contentions affecting students and educators.
“We are concerned because the record since the beginning of Covid 19 is not favourable to the education system and to all those who constitute it. The facts speak for themselves,” says Arvin Bhojun, the secretary of the union. What angers these private secondary school education officials even more is the Online Teaching System, which is not a system for them. “We cannot operate without online teaching as the pandemic situation requires it. But the Ministry of Education is not doing much to improve and make online teaching better, neither for the student nor for the educators who are not up to date enough! Everything needs to be centralized on a new platform. So many models of platforms exist, which can be copied and re-adapted for the students of each grade, according to their level of understanding and handling of the computer and the internet. The courses given and the follow-ups will be more effective. Students and educators, we remain in ‘Bat-Batter lor internet’ mode until better days“, he says. And indeed, the syllabus continues and Cambridge will not change either. The big losers are the students who will not be able to follow and understand everything, but also the parents who invest a lot in their children.
Six points of contention
The problems are multiple and they are taking advantage of the start of the new school year to create this awareness. On the agenda for the 11th of January, 6 very important points, first of all, the beginning of the third term, the current system of Online Teaching and Learning, the final exams of the third term, the non-recognition of educators’ qualifications by the PSEA, the non-payment of educators’ dues by the PSEA, the corruptions at the Mauritius College and the favours of the PSEA to executives at the Mauritius College. The UPSEE secretary also announced that “we will have several questions for the Ministry on the education system where they say they advocate for Equity but we find ourselves devoid of Equity. The fate of students in Extended and Special Needs will also be at the heart of our interrogations as well as the deloaded syllabus“, concludes Arvin Bhojun. The press conference will be held on Tuesday 11th January at the St Georges Hotel in Port Louis.
